The Electoral Commission (EC) has requested the Supreme Court to dismiss the case of the Petitioner, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama.
In an eight paged document to the Courts, signed by the Lawyer for the EC, Justin Amenuvor, it noted that the petition brought by the petitioner is premised on “extreme speculation” and has not disclosed any “reasonable cause of action”.
The petition according to the Commission, “does not merit a trial and it is a total waste of the Court’s time”.
Expounding their reason in appealing to the Courts to chuck the petition out, the EC’s legal team, asserted that, the petitioner’s case by his own showing is founded on two assumptions.
“It is our further submission that, the facts alleged in the petition are not enough to support the reliefs claimed by the Petitioner”.
The EC also stated that the Chairperson’s inadvertent mistake made during declaration did not change how Ghanaians voted on December 7.
Among the alleged facts the Commission has taken cognizance of are the order annulling the declaration of “President-Elect 2020 (C.I 135) dated 9th December, 2020 issued under the hand of Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa Chairperson of the first respondent” and an order for “mandatory injunction directing the first respondent to proceed to conduct a second election with the Petitioner and 1st Respondent as the candidates are required under Articles 63(4) and (5) of the 1992 Constitution”.
It further noted that, the petitioner will need more than the “wrong total valid votes to sustain his action”.
The other assumption the EC says is the flag bearer’s determination to assign all the Techiman South votes to himself even though the actual results were known to him at the time he decided to file the petition.
“He also needs this Honorable Court to assign all the 128,018 registered voters of Techiman South Constituency to him. It is only then that the imaginary scenario he has created in Paragraph 16 of becomes possible in which case 2nd Respondent obtained 49.625% of the wrong valid votes”.
The EC further argues in the document that the petition fails to disclose how the alleged vote padding influenced the outcome of the elections.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has again adjourned the Presidential Election petition hearing to Tuesday, 26th January 2021, on the basis of case management, to allow for some statements and memorandum of issues to be filed by the petitioners and the respondents.
Read More: Supreme Court Adjourns Petition Hearing to 26th January
Mr. Mahama who lost the December 7, 2020 polls to Nana Akufo-Addo subsequently demanded the results annulled.
He argues in his petition filed at the Supreme Court that Nana Akufo-Addo did not actually obtain more than 50% of the votes cast but rather benefitted from vote padding and computational errors.
It states that the 13,434,574 mentioned as total valid votes is an error.
Nana Akufo-Addo, the EC says obtained 6,730,413 representing more than 50% of the 13,121,111 valid votes (specifically 51.295%).
