Claim: The NDC manifesto promised to limit the number of Supreme Court judges to 15 and there are 19 Supreme Court justices.
Source: Awal Mohammed
Verdict: False
Researched by Charlotte Gbonsu
Awal Mohammed, a member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) National Communications Team claimed on Joy News’ AM Show on July 12, 2026 that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has failed to keep its manifesto promise to cap the number of Supreme Court judges at 15.
Awal’s submission was tied to a discussion about justice delivery and a debate about packing of the courts by President John Dramani Mahama: “The overarching thing is that justice is not just to be done, it must be manifestly seen to be done. The optics are very important and that’s very important now because the president has appointed 120 judges within one year and six months, 120 judges.
“You (the NDC) in your manifesto said that you are doing 15 Supreme Court judges. In the NDC manifesto, they said (the) Supreme Court will have 15 judges. Today, we are around 19 judges. Not a replacement. So if it is packing of the judge (court). It is your government today that is packing.”
This report will verify whether the NDC promised to cap Supreme Court justices at 15.
Fact-check
GhanaFact reviewed the NDC’s 2024 Manifesto, and found no specific promise made about the Supreme Court or any commitment to capping the number of justices on the apex court to 15.
Our analysis of the Resetting Ghana manifesto showed that the NDC captured plans for the judiciary under CHAPTER 6: RESTORING GOOD GOVERNANCE AND FIGHTING CORRUPTION.
Under the Justice Delivery subheading, the NDC outlined plans across three main areas as follows: Enhancing Justice Delivery, Justice for All and Judicial Accountability. The word “court” appeared 17 times throughout the manifesto while Supreme Court appeared only once, even that was not within the context of capping the top court.
Our checks further showed that, on July 8, 2024 during election campaign President Mahama made a statement about Supreme Court judges, while criticising the then President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of packing the apex court.
He said: “The Constitution is clear that it’s the president who appoints judges in consultation with the advice of the Judicial Council and so the initiative to appoint judges must come from the president and submitted to the Judicial Council. It brings it back with advice to the president and the president forwards it to Parliament that is the procedure it is very weird that this time the recommendation comes from the Chief Justice to the president.
“Even the issue of capping the number of judges, the Constitution Review Committee recommended that we cap Supreme Court judges at 15 and so the issue of capping the Supreme Court is not for the Chief Justice to say.
“We will respect the Constitutional review process when I become president and when we do that we will put it to the Ghanaian people whether we should retain the 15, whether we should reduce it or whether we should increase it and so I don’t think that should be the Chief Justice saying that we should increase and cap at 15.”
We reached out to Awal Mohammed with our findings via Facebook Messenger but he had yet to respond to us.
Verdict:
The claim that the NDC promised to cap Supreme Court justices at 15 in its 2024 manifesto is rated false!
