A Ghanaian citizen has petitioned the Supreme Court in Accra to declare that a person who has held the office of President for two distinct, non-consecutive terms is still qualified to run for office.
Ganiwu Alhassan, a teacher from Kpandai in the Northern Region, filed the lawsuit against the Attorney-General on July 9, 2026. It was filed on June 26, 2026, by his lawyer, Kwasi Afrifa Esq of O & A Legal Consult in Kumasi.
Article 66(2) of the 1992 Constitution, which prohibits an individual from being elected to the presidency for more than two terms, is at the center of the dispute.
According to Alhassan’s writ, this clause does not exclude someone who has served two different, non-consecutive terms from running for president again; rather, it simply prohibits serving two consecutive terms.
The plaintiff is requesting that the court rule that any attempt to bar such a person from running for president would be against the Constitution.
Alhassan’s statement of case, which brings the action in his position as a citizen under the Constitution’s enforcement provisions, is based on the Preamble and a number of constitutional articles, including those that deal with presidential succession in cases where a vice president serves out an unfilled term.
His attorneys contend that the two-term limit was not meant to be an absolute lifetime cap for someone whose service was similarly non-continuous because the Constitution does not recognise a partial or interrupted term as an automatic bar to serving two complete terms.
Along with citations from Black’s Law Dictionary, the 34-page document marshals a wide range of precedent, including the seminal cases Tuffuor v. Attorney-General, New Patriotic Party v. Attorney-General, Sam v. Attorney-General, and Nartey v. Attorney-General. It also makes an appeal to what the filing refers to as the “letter and spirit” of the Constitution as a living document intended to be interpreted broadly rather than strictly.
Within fourteen days of service, the Attorney-General is required by the writ to provide a statement of defence. At the time of filing, no writ number had been assigned, and the Supreme Court of Ghana is now considering the case.
President John Dramani Mahama, who is currently serving a second term after previous President Nana Akufo-Addo’s eight-year term, has repeatedly declared that he does not want to modify the Constitution in order to run for a third term.
President Mahama reaffirmed in Singapore in August 2025 that he has no intention of running for a third term.
Source: newsthemegh.com