Election petition: If you approach the court wrongly, you will be thrown out – Dr Baasit Bamba

Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Law, Dr Abdul Baasit Aziz Bamba has stated that any election-related matter will be thrown out if the court is approached wrongly.

According to him, analysis by the judiciary shows that a lot of petitions have been rejected based on procedural grounds as there are rules on how to approach the court.

He cited an example that if a citizen files a writ of summon instead of a petition, it will be thrown out.

Speaking to Joy News’ Samson Lardy Anyenini on ‘The Law’ Sunday, Dr Bamba said, “by our rules, if you approach the Court wrongly, especially with election-related matters, you’ll be thrown out.”

Commenting at the back of the Supreme Court statement that it is ready to deal with any presidential petition that may arise after the 2020 elections within 42 days, he said he believes the 42 days is to allow the apex court give sufficient time in compliance to the rules.


He also said that a citizen has 21 days to petition election outcome after the declaration of the result.

He, however, added that failure to do that in the 21 days will mean you “lose the opportunity forever.

“The 21 days is fixed, and nobody can change it,” he said.