The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has explained that its decision to petition the Supreme Court over the results of the 2012 presidential election was to enhance the confidence of Ghanaians in the electoral system and strengthen the muscle of governance institutions in the country.
It said the court case was imperative because it would prevent the situation where people who felt cheated could lose confidence in the electoral system and resort to the use of crude and unlawful means to win elections in future.
The National Chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, explained the rationale behind the party’s court action at a press conference in Accra yesterday.
“Elections in Ghana must not be determined by who has the capacity to rig or buy the vote, with connivance from some corrupt elements within the body tasked to supervise a clean and fair process,” he said.
He assured Ghanaians that “this is not about Nana Akufo-Addo and his presidential aspirations; it is about our country and its future generations”.
After the Electoral Commission (EC) had declared President John Mahama President-elect on December 9, 2012, the NPP indicated that it would not accept the results because it had uncovered a grand scheme that rigged the polls in favour of the President.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey is one of the three people who have filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging the presidential results.
The other two petitioners are Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the 2012 presidential candidate of the NPP, and his running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey further explained that the drafters of the Constitution envisaged the possibility of a disputed election and that those in power and desperate to hold on to power would scheme to “violate the sovereign will of the Ghanaian people”.
Both the EC and President Mahama, who was joined in the suit in his capacity as the president-elect, have filed appearances to the NPP application.
The NPP Chairman stated that the 1992 Constitution also envisioned the fact the a President might be declared winner of an election and inaugurated based on the original declaration by the EC.
But he added that the inauguration was not a point of no return and quoted Article 64 of the 1992 Constitution, which states: “A declaration by the Supreme Court that the election of the President is not valid shall be without prejudice to anything done by the President before the declaration,” to support his claim.
The NPP Chairman added that should the court declare Nana Akufo-Addo the rightful winner of the election, President Mahama would have to vacate the Office of the President for the new President to be inaugurated.
He was, however, quick to add that in the event of Nana Akufo-Addo being declared winner after the court case, “President Akufo-Addo will respect whatever laws might have been enacted by his predecessor, no matter how short the duration of the invalidated mandate”.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said there were five main categories that invalidated votes, all of which were drawn from the pink sheets, 24,000 of which had been examined by the party.
They consisted of over voting, voting without verification, lack of EC signature on sheets, “ghost” polling stations and mismatching words and figures.
He said only 150,000 invalid Mahama votes were required to push him below 50 per cent and, therefore, force a run-off, yet nearly six times that figure had been identified as invalid Mahama votes.
“Consider that only 520,000 invalid Mahama votes are required to give Nana Akufo-Addo a one-touch victory outright, yet nearly double that amount has been identified,” he added.
He described the EC’s response to the NPP’s petition as debating vocabulary by quoting the definitions of adjectives from dictionaries and also packed with arrogance and irreverence which offered no justification for the flaws the party had pointed out.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey assured the EC that the NPP was looking forward to facing it in court, “backed by 24,000 of its very own pink sheets”.
He expressed the hope that at the end of the case, the Supreme Court would give a ruling that would not only make Nana Akufo-Addo the rightful winner but also set in place a process that would lead to the reformation of the electoral process to secure the fate of the country’s democracy forever. 09.01.13
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