President Akufo-Addo (left) exchanging pleasantries with former President Mahama
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has filed a response to the petition by the 2020 presidential candidate of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, challenging his declaration as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
The President is asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the petition on grounds that it lacks substance, and is rather a “face saving gimmick” by the former President.
In a 12-page response, President Akufo-Addo argues that the petition does not disclose any attack on the validity of the elections held in the 38,622 polling stations and 311 special voting centres, adding that the petition is borne out of “unfounded imagination”.
“The instant action is a ruse and face-saving gimmick by the petitioner, after the petitioner and many senior members of the NDC party had prematurely claimed outright victory in the election, only to be badly exposed by results of the 1st respondent (EC), corroborated by all media houses of note in the country as well as many independent local and international observers,” President Akufo-Addo argues.
The second respondent in the petition further prays the Supreme Court to dismiss the petition brought before it by Mr Mahama because it was not based on Article 64(1) of the Constitution, which makes “the validity” of an election the basis of a Presidential Election Petition.
Inconsistent complaints
According to President Akufo-Addo, Mr Mahama devotes an enormous portion of the petition (30 out of 35 paragraphs) to weak and inconsistent complaints about the declaration of the winner of the election by the Electoral Commission (1st Respondent), with the remaining five paragraphs devoted to empty allegations of wrong aggregation of votes padding.
President Akufo-Addo argues that the allegations of vote padding and wrong aggregation of votes, which collectively involve some 6,622 votes, is insignificant to change the outcome of the election.
“2nd Respondent avers that even though Petitioner, from reliefs sought, claims that no candidate obtained more than 50% of valid votes cast in the election, and therefore seeks a ‘second election with Petitioner and 1st Respondent as the candidates…’,Petitioner does not indicate the number of votes or percentage thereof that he should have obtained in the election…’’ Nana Akufo-Addo notes.
To this end, Nana Akufo-Addo argues the failure by Mr Mahama to plead this “supremely material allegation of fact and provide particulars thereof in the Petition completely divests Petitioner of a cause of action.”
EC errors
Responding to the issue of errors made by the EC, 1st Respondent, which was duly corrected, Nana Akufo-Addo argues that the corrections of the errors by the EC in its statement on December 9, 2020 were made within the authority of the EC and therefore do not infringe any law.
“2nd Respondent further says that the correction effected by 1st Respondent on 10th December 2020 provides a proper reckoning of the percentage of votes obtained by 2nd Respondent using the ‘valid votes cast’ rather than ‘total votes cast’ and shows the 2nd Respondent obtained more than 50% of valid votes cast, as required under Article 63(3) of the Constitution,’’ he argues.
Free and fair
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, petition from Mr Mahama fails to disclose any attack on the validity of the elections held throughout the country.
“2nd Respondent says that the election was conducted across 38,622 polling stations in Ghana and 311 special voting centres and that in each polling station and special voting centre, the votes were counted and the results declared in the presence of representatives of the candidates, counting agents, voters, the general public and in most instances, the media and local and international observers.”
He added: “Upon the declaration of results, copies are posted at the various polling stations in accordance with the law governing the elections.
“2nd Respondent states that the Petition does not disclose any attack on the validity of the election held throughout the 38,622 polling stations and 311 special voting centres or any of the processes set out in paragraphs 3 and 4 (supra).”
Nana Akufo-Addo further indicates that Mahama’s petition failed to disclose how many votes he should have obtained, except pointing out that none of the candidates got more than 50% of the total valid votes cast.
“2nd Respondent, in the circumstance, says the petition is merely conjectural and borne out of petitioner’s unfounded imagination and further that the material facts in the petition do not support the reliefs sought and, therefore, same should be dismissed in limine as incompetent.”
Techiman South
With regards to the Techiman South constituency, Nana Akufo-Addo indicates that Mr Mahama in his petition stated that if all votes from Techiman South are added to his votes, the NPP’s Akufo-Addo will get less than 50 per cent of the total valid votes cast, noting that the results from Techiman South were known to John Dramani Mahama at the time of filing his petition.
If the total valid votes cast are credited to each candidate correctly, Nana Akufo-Addo avers, he will duly obtain more than 50% of the votes cast.
“2nd Respondent adds that the Petitioner therefore cannot legitimately make any extrapolations from all the votes in Techiman South, because the Petition ought to be based on facts and not extrapolations and suppositions,” he adds.
Nana Akufo-Addo is therefore praying the Supreme Court to “determine that the petition is incompetent, frivolous and vexatious, and discloses no reasonable cause of action in terms of article 64(1) of the Constitution and set the issue down for legal arguments.”
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