Ghana election petition: EC files affidavit

The Electoral Commission (EC) has complied with the Supreme Court’s order and filed its affidavit in the presidential election petition challenging the legitimacy of President John Dramani Mahama.

The court had to adjourn its hearing of the matter to Wednesday following the inability of the EC to file although the deadline for doing so was to elapse at midnight Tuesday.

At exactly 4 p.m. Tuesday, the affidavit, which was deposed to by Mr Amadu Sulley,  a Deputy Chairman (Finance and Administration) of the EC, was filed on behalf of the EC.

Attached to the 15-paragraph affidavit were seven exhibits.

According to the EC, which is the second respondent in the petition, the manner in which the 2012 elections were conducted, and the participation of representatives of all the political parties in the procedures followed in the constituency collation centres and at its headquarters (strong room), made it impossible to falsify the votes cast and to conceal such falsification.

It said that the initial complaint put forward by the chairman of the New Patriotic Party and representatives of the petitioners in their attempt to halt the declaration of results of the presidential election was that, there were discrepancies between the results in seven constituencies and the results announced by the EC.

When, however, the petitioners filed their petition, it said, they shifted their grounds.

Source: Daily Graphic