A member of the legal team of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has responded to the responses filed by President Akufo-Addo and the Electoral Commission (EC) saying no thief would admit to stealing even when they are taken to court.
Lawyer Abraham Amaliba in his submission said the responses by the first and second respondents are misleading and a show of arrogance.
The President and the EC in their responses described the petition from the former president as one that lacks merit and incompetent, which does not require the attention of the court.
But a member of the NDC legal team, Abraham Amaliba, maintained no thief will admit to stealing when they have been dragged to court.
He added that the responses from the respondents were not surprising because they do not want the truth to be exposed.
Particularly on the EC, he said they have admitted to the mathematical errors but claimed it did not affect the declaration.
This is something he said the court will determine hence the respondents have no business asking for the case to be thrown out.
Mr. Mahama wants the court to annul President Nana Akufo-Addo’s re-election saying that neither he nor the incumbent attained a clear majority during the 2020 polls because of the omission of one constituency from the provisional declaration of results by the Electoral Commission.
The former president says when you do the mathematics well, Nana Akufo-Addo did not cross the 50 percent mark.
But the President in his response says the petition by his contender is “incompetent, frivolous and vexatious” and asked the Supreme Court to dismiss it.
In a 12-page response, lawyers of President Akufo-Addo argued that the claims made by Mr. Mahama “are not supported by the facts pleaded in the Petition”.
The Electoral Commission also filed its preliminary objection to Mr. Mahama’s election petition.
The EC is also arguing that Mr. Mahama in his petition erroneously depended on the total number of votes cast to make his case as being the total number of valid votes cast, an error which was inadvertently mentioned by the EC Chairperson during the declaration of the presidential result but was later corrected in a press release.
According to the EC, President Akufo-Addo garnered 51.59 percent of the valid votes while Mr. Mahama got 47.37 percent.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
