President Akufo-Addo and the Electoral Commission (EC) have formally written to the Supreme Court on the petition brought before the apex court by former President John Dramani Mahama challenging the authenticity of the 2020 presidential election results.
The president in his response to the petition denied all allegations contained in the petition stating “it is devoid of substance and does not measure up to the legal criteria for an action invoking the court’s jurisdiction under Article 64 (1) of the 1992 Constitution.”
President Akufo-Addo also points out that Mr Mahama devotes an overwhelming portion of his petition – 30 out of 35 paragraphs – to weak and inconsistent complaints about his declaration as winner of the 2020 elections by the EC and the remaining 5 paragraphs to empty allegations of wrong aggregation of votes and votes padding which collectively involve 6,662 votes.
“An amount patently insignificant to materially affect the outcome of the election in which the 2nd Respondent (President Akufo-Addo) defeated the petitioner (John Mahama) by well over 500,000 votes,” said the president.
The president further notes that Mr Mahama’s demand for a second election should not be considered by the apex court as Mr Mahama in his petition does not indicate the total number of votes or percentage of votes each candidate obtained to support his request for a second election.
According to the president, Mr Mahama’s petition is “incompetent, frivolous and discloses no reasonable cause of action” by the apex court.
The EC, also in its response on the election petition, urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the election petition of Mr Mahama challenging the 2020 presidential results.
The EC In its 10-page response although admitting to some mathematical errors committed during the collation of the results, indicated the errors did not have any significant effect on the final election results that saw Nana Akufo-Addo emerging as the winner of the 2020 polls.
“There is a possibility of minor discrepancies as a result of computational and mathematical errors made in the course of the collation of the results but these did not have a material effect on the overall results as declared,” the EC said.
“The claims in the petition are contrived, have no legal basis and ought to be dismissed. The EC did not breach the constitution and the petition has no merit,” the EC added.
Read below details of President Akufo-Addo and the EC’s response to the petition:
Answer of Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo by Fuaad Dodoo on Scribd
Answer of Electoral Commission by Fuaad Dodoo on Scribd
Background
Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, on December 29, 2020 petitioned the Supreme Court to declare a run-off of the December 7, 2020 presidential elections.
A petition filed by his legal counsel, Tony Lithur, said his client has evidence that no candidate satisfied the constitutional requirement to be declared president.
By law, a candidate must obtain 50 per cent plus one to be declared the winner of the presidential elections.
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, on December 9, 2020, declared the incumbent Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo president-elect.
According to her, President Akufo-Addo polled 51.59% of the valid votes cast while his opponent John Mahama obtained 47.36%.
But Mr Mahama rejected the results stating they were fraudulent.
