Ghana: CFI Speaks on Supreme Court Election Ruling

By Development Diaries
March 6, 2021

The Civic Forum Initiative (CFI) has urged all Ghanaians to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court on the 2020 presidential election petition.

A seven-member panel of the apex court dismissed the election petition filed by opposition leader and former president John Mahama.

Mahama, who contested the 2020 election on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), took the Electoral Commission (EC) to court.

The electoral umpire declared President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) winner of the 07 December election.

Akufo-Addo received 51.3 percent of the vote to defeat his predecessor, Mahama.

The former president got 47.3 percent of the vote and vowed to contest the results, as he accused the electoral body of presiding over a ‘fraudulent outcome’.

But reading the ruling of the court, Chief Justice Anin Yeboah said the petitioner did not satisfy all the five issues outlined by the court to determine the case.

Chairman of the CFI, which is a coalition of 25 civil society organisations (CSOs), Major General Nii Carl Coleman (retd), urged political actors to put Ghana first and take the necessary actions to ensure that the country does not plunge into political turmoil.

He encouraged the leadership of both the NPP and NDC to work together to eradicate the root causes of vigilantism, violence and the winner-takes-all system in the country in line with the 2020 Presidential Peace Pact.

‘We also call on the Ghana Police Service to ensure law and order as well as the safety of citizens through professional conduct’, he said at a press conference in Accra.

‘We also plead with the media to be circumspect in their reportage and to ensure that their outlets do not become platforms for hate speech and insults’.

Source: GBC Ghana Online