Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey
Even before the Supreme Court commences hearing into the petition brought before it by the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) challenging the declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as winner of the 2012 Presidential elections, the party has started punching holes in the defense filed by the Electoral Commission (EC).
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, National Chairman of the NPP, Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, who happens to be one of the plaintiffs said, “their document (referring to the EC) was full of arrogance and irreverence, and offered no justification for the flaws, other than pathetic excuses about signatures not passing through 3 sheets of carbon paper and suggesting that there were nearly a ¼ million voters added to the rolls late because they were foreign service or NGO officials, students abroad on government scholarships, or international peacekeepers.”
In view of this, he indicated that “they had nothing to say about the details of the case.”
Instead, the party Chief said, “they spend more time and energy debating vocabulary by quoting definitions of adjectives from dictionaries than they spent defending the Ghanaian people. Despite being funded by the taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of millions of Ghana cedis, they ran an election in which one in every 8 votes will have to be thrown out.”
Apart from that, he claimed the EC did not also explain why they chose to annul the results of certain polling stations with minor violations of verification or over-voting when over 1.3 million were declared valid without any problem.
That notwithstanding, Jake emphasized, “We look forward to facing the EC in court, backed by 24,000 of their very own pink sheets.”
The NPP boasted of having presented to the court what its Chairman believes to be incontrovertible evidence that John Mahama did not win the 2012 presidential election, but rather its Presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo won.
“We will prove, just from documented evidence from the EC itself, that over 12% (1.34 million) of votes counted were in fact illegal and ought not have been included in the declared total, and that over 2/3 of this sum, numbering some 916,000, wrongly went to John Mahama for an election in which he crossed the mandatory 50% mark by less than 154,000”, he noted.
NDC’s Hangover
Jake further expressed disgust at the comments and posture of members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) after the NPP filed the petition.
This, he said, was because they had resorted to attacking not the substance of evidence presented to the court, “but raising by-the-way issues citing the irregularities present in every election.”
Whilst assuming without admitting there were minor irregularities in every election, Jake insisted, that “what the people of Ghana are saying, by supporting our petition is that, a manipulated total in which 1 in every 8 votes should not have been included cannot be whitewashed with the term ‘irregularity’ and implied to have been simple, isolated, innocent errors.
“The EC cannot substitute your vote, our votes, with that of an illegal voter called “irregularity”. We don’t accept that and cannot accept that”, he noted.
The NPP Chairman was hopeful that by the end of the case, “the Supreme Court will give a ruling that will not only declare Nana Akufo-Addo the rightful winner but will also set in place a process that will lead to reforming the electoral process and secure the fate of our democracy forever.”
This, he said, was because “the evidence is on our side and we believe that when considered by the justices of the Supreme Court, it will be so pronounced.”
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