Nana Akufo Addo
Barring any last-minute hitch, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is expected to file its much-anticipated suit today to contest the declaration of John Dramani Mahama as the President-elect in the just-ended presidential election.
According to sources, the party will be asking the court to strike out nearly one million votes credited to John Mahama.
The party will be holding a press conference this morning after filing the process at the Supreme Court.
“The conference, which will be held on Friday 28th December 2012, will be addressed by NPP Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the 2012 presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the vice presidential candidate of the NPP,” an invitation sent by Nana Akomea, the party’s Communications Director said.
Many anticipated that the NPP was going to file the petition in court at least yesterday since it declared its intention to contest the election results; but a party source told DAILY GUIDE that they were taking their time to file “a very complete process.”
On Tuesday December 18, 2012, NPP’s presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo indicated in a written letter to the Supreme Court that he would avail himself of the legal opportunities for redress in the disputed electoral results.
This was after the party’s National Executive Committee and party elders had met on December 11 to declare that the NPP was not going to accept the election results until the court ruled on the allegations of electoral fraud.
EC Chairman Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan on December 10 called the results for President John Mahama in spite of the opposition’s claims that the EC needed to investigate the alleged manipulation of figures before the declaration since the party suspected the results had been tampered with.
According to the NPP, it had evidence that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) colluded with some election officials to fix the results in favour of President Mahama.
In spite of the protest, the EC went ahead to gazette the results on December 11, without taking into consideration, the protest raised by the NPP.
As a result, the NPP had been compiling ‘hard and compelling evidence’ to prove that the EC indeed massaged the people’s verdict for President John Mahama on December 7.
The delay in filing the petition is causing anxiety among some Ghanaians, particularly, NPP supporters who want the leadership of the party to be decisive on the matter.
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