Ken Kuranchie reacts to court’s ruling on suit against Mahama

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The Editor-in-chief of the Daily Searchlight newspaper, Kenneth Kuranchie has said he will not give up on his quest to challenge the eligibility of former President John Mahama to contest the 2024 election.

According to him, he will correct the errors in his suit and go back to court.

“Sometimes these oversights happen. I shall be contesting primaries, after the primaries, 2nd December I will have more time to correct the documents and come back,” he announced after the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the case.

The Apex Court ruled that it found the application defective.

But addressing journalists, Mr Kuranchie stated the ruling wasn’t a surprise to him.

“We have been having discussions about this process for about two weeks now and this was envisaged as a possible outcome.

As lawyers, when we come to court, sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose but you take it along in your stride then you go for a better day. Today was not my day, the next time I do better, I will make sure the processes are better the next time,” he said.

The editor in June 2023 filed the case against Mr Mahama, following his election as the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He polled 297,603 (98.9%) of the total valid votes to emerge as the NDC’s presidential candidate for the 4th time.

But Mr Kuranchie said he had found a clause in the Constitution that explicitly bars Mr. Mahama from contesting again as President unless Parliament permits him.

He referred to Article 68 (2) of the 1992 Constitution which states: “The President shall not, on leaving office as President, hold any office of profit or emolument, except with the permission of Parliament, in any establishment, either directly or indirectly, other than that of the State.”

The lawyer therefore among other things sought a declaration on a true and proper interpretation of the 1992 Constitution, the number of years of a presidential term in Ghana is four years.

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