Electoral Petition: It’s a Tsatsu VS Jean Mensa affair at the Supreme Court 

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.

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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.

Chief Justice Wood, in 2013, allowed cameras into the courtroom, following a demand made by Gabby Asare-Otchere Darko of the NPP for a live broadcast of the proceedings of their petition contesting the 2012 general elections result.

Last Saturday, the NDC’s Lawyer, Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor, formally announced that the petition would be filed this week Wednesday, but The Herald has picked up a report that the party has decided to do so a day ahead of time.

Also on the bill, is the parliamentary results of the Techiman South Constituency, where the results declared in favour of Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsa, has been challenged by the NDC, which is demanding some documents as proof that the NPP candidate had won the seat at a place where its Presidential candidate John Mahama, beat Akufo-Addo with 52,034 as against 46,379 votes.

The NDC insists that its candidate, Christopher Bayere, won the seat by 293 votes, but the EC is yet to release the document to the NDC to clear its doubt over that constituency.

Dr. Amaliba told Citi News “We expect to be treated fairly, this is a national issue. We also expect that if we are able to make our case beyond a reasonable doubt, I am sure that the Supreme Court will hold that Nana Akufo-Addo, did not attain the required 50 +1 votes.”

“Indeed, we also expect that the petition will be telecast live. Any attempt to hinder that will create the impression that the hearing is not going to be fair, so we will put in the request to have it telecast live,” he indicated.

The NDC flagbearer, John Mahama, has refused to accept Akufo-Addo’s election victory.

He described the election results announced by the EC as “fictionalised.”

“I stand before you tonight unwilling to accept the fictionalised result of a flawed election,” Mr Mahama had said at a press conference.

“What we witnessed across the country from Monday 7th December 2020, exposed a deliberate plan to manipulate and predetermine the results of the election in favour of the incumbent candidate Nana Akufo-Addo,” he added.

The EC announced President Akufo-Addo, as the rightful winner of the December 7 polls on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, despite concerns raised by the NDC.

President Akufo-Addo won with 6,730,587 (51.302%) of the total votes cast.

Mr Mahama came second with 6,213,182 votes representing 47.359%.

Source: The Herald.