EC’s Jean Mensa going into the dock as NDC files election petition today

Barring any last minute changes, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will today file a petition against the 2020 Presidential result declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) on Wednesday, December 9.

The Herald is informed that the party’s lawyers led by Tsatsu Tsikata, will be focusing on the Chairperson of the Commission, Jean Mensa to justify the numbers and percentages she mentioned, as having been obtained by the various Presidential candidates.

This is not to overturn the Presidential results as declared but to establish the actual votes obtained by the two frontrunners in the election; Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and John Dramani Mahama of the NDC.

After the filing, Mr Mahama will address a press conference at a location yet to be announced.

The NDC Legal team is made up of Tsatsu Tsikata, Nana Ato Dadzie, Fui Tsikata, Dominic Ayeni, Tony Lithur, Dr. Bassit Bamba, Samuel Cudjoe, Marietta Brew Appiah- Oppong, Victor Kojoga Adawudu, Edudzi Kudzo Tameklo, Dr. Abraham Amaliba, Dr. Rainer Akumperigya and Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor, the Member of Parliament for South Dayi in the Volta Region.

Some of the lawyers, hold the view that per Jean Mensa’s numbers, the worst-case scenario for the just-ended election was a runoff between Akufo-Addo and John Mahama, but not an outright victory for the NPP candidate.

In this regard, Jean Mensa, like Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan in 2013 in the election petition, will be the focal point of the NDC’s legal team, hoping to extract as much information from her as possible to buttress the claims by both mathematicians and statisticians that Mrs Mensa’s mathematics was wrong.

The many times she changed the figures she declared but kept saying the changes were not affecting the overall percentages obtained by the 17 candidates who took part in the race, has heightened the suspicions that something sinister took place behind the scenes ahead of the declaration of President Akufo-Addo as president-elect.

The Herald’s information from the NDC legal team is that, while some of the lawyers felt that the party should go with the audited results by focusing on various infractions noted at the polling stations and collation centres, others believe that the time allotted the hearing is too short to traverse that path, hence Jean Mensa should just be made to justify her numbers.

The lawyers pushing for the infractions to be placed before the Supreme Court judges insist there had been ballot box stuffing and over voting in certain parts of the country, particularly the Ashanti Region, and this must be dealt with by the apex court.

The group has results from over 18,000 polling stations to push their case, however, those against the infractions are arguing that the Supreme Court, had in the 2013 election petition, filed by Nana Akufo-Addo, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Jake Obtsebi-Lamptey, made a determination on that, saying it is not enough ground to overturn the declared result.

For now, all attention is on Chief Justice Anin Yeboah, as to whether he would allow cameras into the courtroom as happened in 2013, when the then Chief Justice Georgina Wood, made history by opening the doors of the courtroom to TV cameras to enable Ghanaians to follow the proceedings presided by the now retired, Justice William Atuguba.

Meanwhile, a member of the NDC legal team, Dr. Amaliba, has intimated that the party would make a request to the Chief Justice Anin Yeboah to repeat the 2013 scenario.

Dr. Amaliba said such a request would be in the interest of fairness.

source: The Herald