The President and the EC described the NDC’s petition 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 that “that is a disingenuous way of looking at the petition.”
“The C.I. 135 gazetted the error-ridden declaration on the [9th of December]. Whether [the claims in the petition] are tenable or untenable, it is not for them to say. That is a decision for the Supreme Court,” he insisted.
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.
“Our argument is that when you do the mathematics well, Nana Akufo-Addo has not crossed the 50 percent mark and the declaration is unconstitutional,” Mr. Amaliba reiterated.
President Akufo-Addo described Mahama’s petition as “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.
In its 10-page response, the EC acknowledged the possibility of errors but said the possible discrepancies would not have any significant effect on the final election results.
It also said 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.
Source: citinewsroom.com
