Johnson Asiedu Nketia
General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who is the star witness for former President John Dramani Mahama in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition, yesterday told the Supreme Court in Accra that he did not have the total valid votes as far as the 2020 Presidential Election was concerned.
The witness, testifying at the instance of Mr. Mahama who is challenging the results of the December 7, 2020 Presidential Election declared by the Electoral Commission (EC), could also not tell the court what per his calculation, the total valid votes obtained by Mr. Mahama was.
Again the witness failed to tell the court what number of valid votes President Akufo-Addo had obtained in the election even though Mr. Mahama had filed the petition challenging that none of the candidates who participated in the election met the threshold of more than 50 per cent of the total valid votes to be declared winner as done by the EC on December 9, 2020.
Mr. Asiedu Nketia, answering a question from a member of the panel of seven judges told the court that “My Lord, I haven’t brought that figure to court.”
Clarification
The witness, while under cross examination by Akoto Ampaw, lead counsel for President Akufo-Addo, kept referring to the figures he was being confronted with as “if the figures are correct.”
Court Question
This drew the attention of Justice Yaw Apau who wanted a clarification on the issues which the witness had raised on numerous occasions.
“You were saying ‘if the figures were correct, if the figures were correct,’ and that there were inconsistencies in the figures. I want to ask you, now, in your own calculations, what were the total valid votes cast in the presidential elections on December 7, 2020 in your own calculations,” Justice Appau asked the witness.
Mr. Nketia initially attempted to evade the question by stating that those calculations were reserved for parties to sit and reconcile the figures because the Chairperson of the EC kept changing the figures.
But the Chief Justice reminded the witness that he had earlier told the court that his party had assigned agents at all 275 constituencies and they were to collate the figures so he should tell the court what total figure he got.
“My Lord, I haven’t brought that figure to court,” Mr. Nketia answered.
Justice Apau then asked “from your own calculations, what were the valid votes cast in favour of the petitioner (Mr. Mahama), to your knowledge?”
Mr. Nketia said “I don’t have them here.”
Justice Apau: What figures from your own calculations did the second respondent (Nana Akufo-Addo) get as the total valid votes cast in his favour?
Asiedu Nketia: My Lord, I don’t have those figures here.
More Grilling
The witness was yesterday kept under an over five hours cross-examination by lawyers for the President who sought to discredit the claims by Mr. Mahama that none of the 12 candidates that participated in the presidential election held on December 7, 2020 met the constitutional threshold of more than 50 per cent of the total valid votes to be declared winners.
Mr. Nketia confirmed that per the figures presented by the EC, President Akufo-Addo met the threshold of the more than 50 per cent of the total valid votes as far as those figures were correct.
Mr. Ampaw who got the witness to calculate the figures in court put it to him that calculating the percentage of the President’s valid votes of 6,730,413 against the total valid votes he got 51.2945 per cent, which was more than the threshold provided by the constitution.
Mr. Nketia admitted the figures and the percentages but held that “that would be so if the figures provided by the EC were correct.”
Multiple Scenarios
Mr. Ampaw presented the witness with multiple scenarios which indicated that no matter which results were used in calculating the vote obtained by each candidate, President Akufo-Addo still won the election with more than 50 per cent of the total valid votes, but the witness was adamant.
Using the figures announced by the Chairperson of the EC on December 9, which is the focus of the petition as claimed by the witness, Mr. Ampaw put it to the witness that even those figures indicated that the President met the threshold of more than 50 per cent of the total valid votes.
“Well, if the figures are correct, yes,” Mr. Nketia replied.
Techiman South
Again, using the Techiman South Constituency results which were in dispute at the time of the declaration by the EC Chairperson, Mr. Akoto Ampaw put it to the witness that if he added the total votes the President, in that area, would still have met the more than 50 per cent threshold while Mr. Mahama would have obtained 47.396 per cent of the total valid votes.
“From the total we see here, yes,” Mr. Nketia responded while looking on an exhibit referred to him by the lawyer.
Mr. Ampaw then challenged the witness that the President still met the threshold of more than 50 per cent either by using his (witness) figures or that of the EC, and the witness told the court the data was inconsistent.
Contrary Evidence
Mr. Ampaw put it to the witness that all evidence available before the court showed that the President met the more than 50 per cent threshold but Mr. Nketia said he disagreed.
The lawyer then asked the witness if he had any figures or evidence to prove that the President did not obtain more than 50 per cent of the votes and the witness said those figures were not available from the declaration of the EC.
Again, Mr. Ampaw asked the witness whether he came to court to challenge the results of the election without any evidence, and Mr. Nketia indicated that they had provided evidence from the EC
Vote Padding
The lawyer also took his time to confront the witness about his claim of vote padding in favour of the President in some 26 constituencies.
He challenged the witness that the 4,693 alleged padded votes would not affect the outcome of the election even if the figures were added to the valid votes obtained by Mr. Mahama as President Akufo-Addo still would have met the threshold.
The witness disagreed, stating that one could not add wrong figures to correct ones and get an accurate figure.
Sitting continues today.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak