The Judiciary and Ghana’s 2012 Elections: Analysis of 2012 Presidential Elections Petition and its Ramifications for Democratic Development in Ghana

Abstract

The conduct of the 2012 presidential elections provided another opportunity to gauge the extent of Ghana’s democratic development with the election petition. By Judicial majority decision of 5-4, the panel of nine Supreme Court judges did not sustain the first presidential elections petition in the country.  Three cardinal issues: “no signature of presiding officer”, “No biometric verification of voters”, and over-voting determined the judgment. These core irregularities, infractions and statutory violations constituted the primary basis of determining the substance of the petition presented by the petitioners. The paper seeks to assess the Judiciary, a body entrusted with the responsibility of upholding and defending the Constitution and Acts of Parliament on impartiality, independence in the democratization process of the country. The significance of the study is to test whether the Judiciary is capable of upholding to these democratic principles entrusted to it.  It is the conclusion of the paper after a thorough analysis of the judgment of the Supreme Court that the option of seeking post-electoral adjudication in court by stakeholders is shut. Consequently, parties to future electoral disputes ought to resolve such challenges at the respective polling stations.

Keywords: Ghana, Democracy, Judiciary, Elections and Petition