Director of Legal Affairs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Abraham Amaliba has said that the suit filed against Former President John Dramani Mahama’s decision to run for president again in 2024 has no legs to stand on.
Asked how the NDC is going to handle the situation if the Supreme Court grants the reliefs that the Managing Editor of the Searchlight Ken Kuranchie who filed the suit is seeking, Mr Amaliba told Johnnie Hughes on the Sunrise show on 3FM Wednesday, June 14 that “The Supreme Court doesn’t write the Constitution…the Supreme Court cannot write the Constitution and cannot insert words and letters in the Constitution…Where in the Constitution does it say that when a person goes one term and does not come back to continue consecutively he can’t come back again?”
Lawyer Abraham Amaliba explains what it will mean if Ken Kuranchie's lawsuit against John Mahama is granted by the court. #3FMSunrise pic.twitter.com/9a2pPP37nS
— #3FM927? (@3fm927) June 14, 2023
The reliefs Mr Kuranchie is seeking include, “A declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 66 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, the number of years of a presidential term in Ghana is four years.
“A declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Article 66 (1) and (2) of the 1992 Constitution, a person seeking a second presidential term must be a sitting president.
“An order directed at [John Mahama] to fully disclose to Parliament the terms of his engagements with Parliament as flagbearer of a political party.”
Mr Mahama was recently elected flagbearer of the NDC for the 2024 general elections.
During the NDC’s primaries held on Saturday, May 13, 2023, he swept 297,603 (98.9%) of the total valid votes to become the party’s Presidential Candidate for the 4th time.