Lawyers for Akufo-Addo, EC serve notice of appearance in election petition

Amenuvor and Associates and Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co, have filed to represent the Electoral Commission (EC) and President Akufo-Addo respectively in the presidential petition filed by candidate John Dramani Mahama following his rejection of the declared results.

The two law firms filed their notice of appearance informing, the apex court that they will be representing the respondents.

Amenuvor & Associates will be led by Counsel Justin Amenuvor whereas Lawyer Akoto Ampaw will be representing the second (2nd) respondent, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The filing of the “Notice of Appearance”, is in fulfilment of Article 64 of the 1992 Constitution and the Supreme Court Rules 1996, (C. I. 16) as amended by C. I. 74 and C. I. 99.

The Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Former President John Dramani Mahama, last week filed a petition at the Supreme Court praying the court to annul the declaration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the President-elect by the Electoral Commission.

He is also seeking an order of injunction restraining President Akufo-Addo from holding himself as the President-elect.

In his petition, the former president is further asking the court to order the electoral body to conduct a second election with only him and President Akufo-Addo as the candidates.

It is the case of Mr. Mahama that the Chairperson of the EC, Mrs. Jean Mensa, breached the 1992 Constitution, specifically Article 63(3) with the declaration that she made on December 9, 2020.

He is also asking the court to declare that based on the data contained in the declaration “no candidate satisfied” the more than 50 percent threshold required to be declared a winner of the presidential poll.

He also wants a declaration from the court that the said declaration of President Akufo-Addo as the President-elect by the EC is “unconstitutional, null, void and of no legal effect”.

In his petition, the former President argues that the results announced by Mrs. Mensa on December 9, 2020, did not give any candidate the more than 50 percent threshold.

He said the EC Chairperson announced the total valid votes cast as 13,434,574, minus the results of Techiman South, with President Akufo-Addo obtaining 6,730,413 of the votes representing 51.595 percent of the votes while he (Mahama) got 6,214,889 representing 47.366 percent of the votes.