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Home » 3 News » Tue 12th Jan, 2021 » Election Petition: Why Akufo-Addo wants the suit ‘thrown away’

Election Petition: Why Akufo-Addo wants the suit ‘thrown away’

3 News

Tue 12th Jan, 2021 10:54

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has prayed the Supreme Court to dismiss the election petition brought before it by the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the December 7, 2020 Presidential Election, John Dramani Mahama.

The former president sued the EC as 1^st Respondent and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as 2^nd Respondent in a case which is expected to commence on Thursday, January 14.

Mr. Mahama in his petition wants the court to among other things annul the declaration of the results which announced President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo president of the Republic of Ghana and order a rerun between himself and the 2^nd Respondent.

But Akufo-Addo in his response described the petition as being incompetent, frivolous, and vexatious, praying the court to dismiss same.

Here are some of Akufo-Addo’s key arguments for which reason he wants the petition thrown out;

Akufo-Addo argues in paragraphs 10 and 29 that John Mahama’s petition fails to justify a cause of action under Article 64 (1). He asserts that a cause of action under this provision challenges “the validity of the election itself” and the “declaration of the results”. He maintains the petition is incompetent within the context of the law because “an alleged inaccuracy with the declaration of election results on 9^th December 2020, does not mean that the election of 2^nd Respondent [Akufo-Addo] as President of Ghana on 7^th December, 2020 is invalid”.
Akufo-Addo also avers in paragraph 5 of his response that John Mahama fails to disclose any attack on the validity of the election throughout the 38, 622 polling stations and 311 special voting centres or any of the processes leading to the declaration of the results. According to him, John Mahama devoted most parts of his petition complaining about the “declaration of a winner” and “wrong aggregation of votes” without challenging the validity of the election itself.
The 2^nd Respondent Akufo-Addo, just the like the 1^st Respondent Electoral Commission of Ghana (Ghana), argues in paragraphs 7, 8 and 9 that even though John Mahama claims none of the 12 candidates met the constitutional threshold of more than 50% of valid votes cast, he failed to disclose how many votes or what percentages each candidate ought to have got. Failure to disclose such important information, according to Akufo-Addo, means that John Mahama’s petition is “merely conjectural and borne out of the Petitioner’s unfounded imaginations…” which he wants dismissed at the very beginning (in limine).
Akufo-Addo argues again in paragraph 6 that the allegations of “vote padding” and “wrong aggregation of votes” affects only about 6622 votes, which he deems immaterial in an election he won with more than 500, 000 votes as was declared by the 1^st Respondent Electoral Commission.
2^nd Respondent Akufo-Addo asserts in paragraphs 13, 14, 15 and 16, that the correction of errors by the 1^st Respondent Electoral Commission of Ghana, was within the authority of the commission to do so and does not infringe any law.
Akufo-Addo also contends in paragraph 36 that the conduct of John Mahama and other leading members of the NDC claiming outright victory after the election, only to come back to court to seek a rerun of the election shows they set out to “deceive the people of Ghana”, and that from the outset they knew they lost the election.