Jean Mensa, EC chair
The Electoral Commission (EC) has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss an election petition brought before it by the 2020 flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, describing the petition as ‘incompetent’.
“The 1st respondent prays that the petition and all the grounds in support thereof be summarily dismissed by this Honorable Court for not disclosing any reasonable cause of action,” the EC stated in its response to the apex court.
In a preliminary objection to the petition, the EC said the petition is incompetent as it does not meet the requirement of Article 64(1) of the Constitution and Rule 68(1) of the supreme Court rules 1996 (C I 16) as amended, used in challenging the validity of the presidential election conducted by the first respondent (EC) on December 7, 2020.
The EC added that the petitioner failed to indicate the exact number of votes and percentages that he or other candidates ought to have obtained in comparison to the number of votes and percentages declared by the first respondent.
Minor discrepancies
According to the Commission, notwithstanding all the resources and training deployed and the facilities put in place, there is a possibility of minor discrepancies as a result of computational and mathematical errors made in the course of the collation of results. The EC however said this did not have any material effect on the overall results as declared.
It added that after the declaration of December 9 2020, four constituencies in the Greater Accra Region reported an update in the results announced in those constituencies, a net difference of 1,651 votes. That update was factored into the December 10, 2020 press release, but it did not have a material effect on the overall results as declared.
It further denied that the tally of those constituencies referred to yields a difference of 6,662, as alleged by the petitioner.
Rule of law
The Commission says it complied with all the processes and procedures laid down by law for the conduct of December 7, 2020 presidential election, with fairness to every candidate and without malice, ill will or bias against anyone.
The EC maintained that in a bid to enhance transparency and public participation in electoral process, it published all the regional election summary sheets (form 12) on its website. A simple tabulation of the same would show that President Akufo-Addo indeed won the election as declared.
According to the Commission, the results of December 7, 2020 presidential election, as declared on December 9, 2020, did not breach the Constitution and that the petition has no merit whatsoever.
The EC argued that the NDC’s petition ought to be dismissed because the petitioner does not challenge the validity of the election conducted throughout all the 38,622 polling stations and the 311 special voting centres in the country or contest the lawfulness of votes obtained by any of the parties to the election.
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