President Nana Akufo-Addo and the Electoral Commission (EC) have filed their responses to a petition filed by the Presidential candidate of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama at the Supreme Court challenging the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
The two respondents in their separate responses filed yesterday are urging the court to dismiss the case as the petitioner did not properly invoke the jurisdiction of the court in accordance with Article 64(1) of the constitution.
The President in his response described the petition as “incompetent, devoid of substance and does not measure up to the legal criteria for an action invoking this honourable court’s (Supreme Court’s) jurisdiction under article 64(1) of the constitution”.
Nana Akufo-Addo also labeled the petition a face-saving gimmick by Mr. Mahama after he had claimed that he won the election prior to the declaration by the EC.
““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,” the President argued.
The EC on its part denied all the allegations of vote padding as contained in some parts of the petition.
The EC also argues that Mr. Mahama’s reliance on the error made by the Chairperson of the EC on December 9, 2020 , when she inadvertently mentioned the total number of votes cast as the total valid votes to conclude that the percentage of valid votes for Nana Akufo-Addo would not meet Article 63(3) threshold “is misleading, untenable and misconceived.”
“The full results of the December 7 presidential election was known to the petitioner and that the claims in the petition are contrived, have no legal basis and ought to be dismissed in limine,” the EC argued.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak