NPP’s going to court heavy responsibility – Akufo-Addo

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) today December 28, 2012 officially filed a petition before Ghana’s highest court of adjudication challenging the country’s December 7, 2012 presidential votes won by President John Dramani Mahama.

The party chairman, Jake Obetsebi  Lamptey announced at a press conference that a suit number J1/6/13 has been filed at the Registry of the Supreme Court. According to Article 64, Clause One of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, any Ghanaian could challenge election results 21 days after declaration.

Nana Akufo-Addo, Dr Mahamudu Bawunia and Jake Obetsebi Lamptey were the first, second and third plaintiffs respectively.

According to the NPP Presidential candidate, Akufo-Addo, taking the matter to court was a heavy responsibility.

“In deciding to go to court, we were well aware that we were taking on a heavy responsibility and it turned out to be as massive a task as we had feared,” Nana Addo told the press.

He adds “It was not an easy decision for us to tell the people of Ghana that we would not accept the results of the elections as declared by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, but we had to accept the responsibility of righting, what in our view, was the wrong of an invalid election.”

The NPP fact-finding mission on the election irregularities revealed that there were about 1.34 million votes that were “wrongly counted” and most were in favour of Electoral Commission-declared President-elect John Mahama.

Nana Addo said the “scale of what we have uncovered has surprised even the most skeptical among us. Personally, it has been a sad experience.”

Nana Addo defended the party’s decision to seek redress in court saying “We have now put our case before the court, and are also putting the case before you, the people of Ghana. We leave it for the court to judge the merits. But once again, the NPP, through the petitioners in this case, is seeking to deepen our democracy by strengthening the institutions that are mandated by our Constitution to superintend the electoral process: (1) by ensuring that the Electoral Commission is accountable to the people of Ghana, and (2) the Supreme Court is seen by all as the ultimate arbiter of electoral grievances and disputes.”

President John Mahama had 5,574,761 votes which was 50.7% of all valid votes cast and Nana Akufo-Addo had 5, 248,898 votes which was 47.7%. There was a 79.43% voter turn-out. More than 14.1 million registered voters were expected to vote and over 11.2 million voted.

After the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan announced the results and declared incumbent President John Mahama winner and President-elect, December 9, 2012, 72 hours after the votes, the NPP rejected the results claiming the vote has been rigged.

By Ekow Quandzie