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2012 election petition was an insult to petitioners - Maurice Ampaw

Maurice Ampaw said Presiding Judge Justice William Atuguba's verdict was an insult to Ghanaians

He said Presiding Judge Justice William Atuguba's verdict was an insult to Ghanaians.

His comments come at back of the Supreme Court in Kenya which has annulled the result of the recent presidential election.

The court cited irregularities and indicated that a new poll should be organized within 60 days.

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Maurice Ampaw speaking on the development in Kenya said "If you read Justice William Atuguba’s verdict it is full of insults."

According to him, "he [William Atuguba] insulted Nana Addo and NPP that their petition is one of most useless petitions ever.

"When we have a clear case where the Constitution says 'Shall' then we have Atuguba interpreting it another way."

"Justice Atugaba led the Supreme Court to fail to uphold the law and constitution of the country," Maurice Ampaw said in an interview on Kumasi-based Hello FM.

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Background to election petition

On August 29, 2013, Ghana experienced a landmark ruling in an eight month long prolonged tussle at the Supreme Court over the validity of the presidential results in the 2012 polls.

This follows the challenge of the 2012 presidential results by the NPP led by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

The NPP argued that they had every reason to believe that the results were rigged in favour of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) candidate Mahama.

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They prayed the Court to declare their candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo as President with reasons that unpardonable malpractices and irregularities at 10,119 polling stations justified the nullification of 3,931,339 “invalid votes” which, the petitioners argued, would have beaten down John Mahama’s votes and overturned the declared results by the Electoral Commission.

According to the NPP’s pleadings, over-voting occurred at 1,722 polling stations, while voting without biometric verification occurred at 2,020 polling stations.

They claimed presiding officers did not also sign pink sheets at 1,638 polling stations, while the use of duplicate serial numbers on pink sheets affected 8,987 polling stations.

The petitioners further argued that if the results of the 10,119 polling stations were annulled, President Mahama’s votes would have reduced by 2,622,551, which would have, in turn, beaten down the results declared by the Electoral Commission in his favour, to 41.79 per cent.

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They said although Nana Akufo-Addo’s votes would have, in like manner, been reduced by 1,233,186, he would have nonetheless secured 56.85 per cent, per their permutations, to cross the 50 per cent mark for victory.

But the court by a 5-4 majority decision justified why Mahama was validly elected.

There were four and three consistent judges who voted against and for the annulment of more than two million votes due to what the petitioners described as gross and widespread irregularities recorded during the election.

Justices William Atuguba, Mrs Justice Sophia Adinyira, Mr Justice N. S. Gbadegbe and Mrs Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo in an overall decision dismissed the petitioners claims for the annulment of a total of 3,931,339 votes due to electoral irregularities in the December 7 and 8, 2012 presidential election.

The dissenting justices who held the view there were issues to be settled with allegations of over voting, absence of presiding officers’ signature and voting without biometric verification were Mr Justice Julius Ansah, Ms Justice Rose Constance Owusu and Mr Justice Anin Yeboah.

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They declined to declare Nana Addo as the validly elected president, but held the view that the votes affected by these allegations must be annulled and a re-run held.

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