The nine-member Supreme Court justices on Thursday August 29, 2013 ruled that John Mahama's presidency is valid and in a majority decision dismissed the petition by the petitioners, ie the 2012 Presidential candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; his running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the party's national chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey. Justice William Atuguba, President of the bench, who read the decision, concluded by saying that "in the circumstances, the overall effect is that the first respondent was validly elected and the petition is therefore dismissed. Our various judgements, for the sake of convenience are handed over to the registrar of this court. Below is the decision as read by Justice Atuguba. The Final Verdict: Well, this is the decision we have arrived at: Upon a scrutiny of the petition, we found that the issues to be determined are as set out at page 125 of the counsel for the petitioners' written address were as follows: 1. Over voting, 2. voting without biometric verification, 3. absence of the signature of the presiding officer, 4. duplicate serial numbers, that is to say occurrence of the same serial numbers on pink sheets for two different polling stations, 5. duplicate polling station codes, that is to say occurrence of different results of pink sheets for polling stations with the same polling station codes, 6. unknown polling stations, that is to say results recorded for polling stations that are not part of 26,002 polling stations provided by the second respondent in the petition. We unanimously dismiss the claims relating to duplicate serial numbers, duplicate polling station codes, and unknown polling stations, that is for short. Atuguba, Adinyira, Baffoe-Bonnie, Gbadegbe, and Akoto-Bamfo, dismiss the claim of over voting. Atuguba, Adinyira, Baffoe-Bonnie, Gbadegbe, Akoto-Bamfo, dismiss the claims relating to absence of signature of presiding officer. Atuguba, Adinyira, Dotsey, Baffoe-Bonnie, Gbadegbe, Akoto-Bamfo dismiss the claim relating to voting without biometric verification Ansah, Owusu and Anim Yeboah grant all the three claims, that is to say, over voting, absence of presiding officers' signature and voting without biometric verification, annul the votes involved and order a rerun of the affected areas Dotsey JSC grants the claim of over-voting but has provided a road-map in his judgement as in the figures of votes to be ascertained and cancelled and a re-run of the areas affected Dotsey JSC upholds the claim relating to absence of presiding officers' signatures on the pink sheets cancels the results concerned and orders a rerun of the areas affected Baffoe-Bonnie JSC grants the claim of voting without biometric verification cancels the votes involved and orders a rerun of the areas affected In the circumstances the overall effect is that the first respondent was validly elected and the petition is therefore dismissed. Our various judgements for the sake of convenience are handed over to the registrar of this court We highly commend the services of KPMG, the referee appointed to undertake the count of the pink sheet and also the counsels on all sides of this case. That is our judgement.

• published: 29 Aug 2013
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