The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has revealed that the party had to accept the outcome of the election petition in the interest of the country.
He said although justice was not served, the party and its flagbearer John Dramani Mahama had to let go for the sake of peace.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday August 24, Mr Asiedu Nketia said “It is trite knowledge that all is not well with our elections in Ghana.
“It all begun as far back as in 1992, some have got solutions along the way from each passing elections since 1992.
“We thought we were making progress because each election represented an improvement on the previous elections until 2020 came, and you will bear with me that 2020 elections has been one of the worse elections we have had in the 4th republic.
“We did our part as a country to resolve some of the problems. We made it known to the whole world that we are accepting to work with the outcomes of the court processes not because we think there has been justice.
“But we think we have to save the democracy and improve upon what we have.”
Background
The seven-member panel that presided over the 2020 election petition dismissed the petition filed by former President John Dramani Mahama.
It was the ruling of the court that the 2nd respondent garnered more than 50% of the valid votes cast as required by the law.
The court also ruled that the error committed by the EC in the declaration was not strong enough to overturn the results announced.
Also, the court added that the EC Chairperson had the right to correct the error and was not mandated by law or any statutes to engage the parties before correcting the errors.
It further added the declaration did not violate Article 63(3) of the 1992 Constitution.
It was also ruled that the petitioner John Dramani Mahama failed to provide credible evidence to warrant a second round of the election between himself and President Akufo-Addo.
Whiles reading the verdict of the apex court today, March 4, 2021, Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah said the evidence given by the petitioner’s second and third witnesses were of no relevance to the issues underdetermination.
“As for the other two witnesses, that is Petitioner’s Witness, PW2 and 3; Dr Kpessa-Whyte and Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, the little said, about their testimonies relative to the issues at stake, the better.”
“They recounted the fanciful tale of how the chairperson refused to heed their complaints on some irregularities they noticed on some of the collation forms which came from the regions.
“We describe this evidence as fanciful because, despite this alleged protest, they went ahead to verify and certify 13 of 16 regional collation sheets,” the ruling added.
The court said the petitioner could not prove that the declaration & gazette under article 63(9) made by the 1st Respondent was in violation of Article 63(3), adding, errors with no effect on results cannot void the declaration.
By: Rashid Obodai Provencal
