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Ghana: Supreme Court will uphold Mahama win after opposition fails to provide evidence of poll irregularities
Ghana President John Mahama
Ghana’s Supreme Court is expected this week to reject an opposition challenge to President John Mahama’s victory in last year’s close-fought election, legal and political experts said on Wednesday.
The decision, due by Thursday, will end months of legal wrangling that has gripped the cocoa, gold and oil-exporting nation, one of Africa’s brightest economic growth prospects that has built a reputation for political stability.
Mahama won the December election with 50.7 percent of the vote and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) launched a Supreme Court challenge, alleging fraud and irregularities.
The court’s nine-member panel can either validate Mahama’s win or order a re-run.
“It will be a 7-2 (split) decision, or at worse 6-3 in favor of Mahama,” said Seth Gyekye, a political analyst at the Accra-based Futures think-tank.
Gyekye said evidence provided by the NPP party suggested the need for better training for election workers rather than a reversal of the result.
Ghana is home to one of Africa’s fastest growing economies and is expected to see 8 percent economic growth in 2013.
