A member of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) legal team, Abraham Amaliba says the Supreme Court will decide the fate of the Presidential Election Petition pending before it.
He has, therefore, downplayed President Akufo-Addo’s response that the petition should be dismissed because it is frivolous and vexatious.
Mr. Amaliba said this on Monday in an interview in reaction to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s call for the Supreme Court to dismiss the Presidential Election Petition filed by former President John Dramani Mahama, Presidential Candidate of the NDC, in the December 7, 2020 polls.
President Akufo-Addo in his response to the petition urged the apex court to dismiss it saying it was borne out of unfounded imagination.
However, Mr Amaliba disagreed with the president’s opinion on the matter and urged him to be present when the case was called.
“The President is aware that the Electoral Commission (EC) has admitted that it committed errors in the 9th December Declaration of the Presidential Election results. The President is aware that the EC admitted to that error. The President is aware that the EC subsequently sought to correct that mistake through a press statement, which was unsigned,” Mr. Amaliba stated.
“But at the end of the day, when the EC gazetted the results of the 2020 election, the Commissioner gazetted the 9th December Declaration, which is an error, riddled election result declaration.”
“So, these are matters that must be resolved in court. And so, for the Akufo-Addo to say that our petition lacks merit is, to say the least, disingenuous on his part.”
Mr Amaliba noted that in any case, if one takes the president’s own response to the petition, the President indicated that the petition did not attack the validity of his election.
“It clearly shows that the President and his people don’t understand our electoral processes. Our electoral processes end at the declaration stage, where the EC would declare the elections,” Mr. Amaliba said.
“And if the EC has declared wrong results, isn’t that against the Constitution? Isn’t that against article 63 (3) of the 1992 constitution? Where it states that the person to be declared as a winner should have attained more than 50 percent.”
Article 63 (3): “A person shall not be elected as president of Ghana unless at the presidential election the number of votes cast in his favour is more than fifty percent of the total number of valid votes cast at the election.”
He quizzed that if at the end of the day, the EC declares the result and proper mathematics of that declaration would show that Akufo-Addo would get forty-nine point something percent, but not cross the 50 percent mark to become president, isn’t that an issue?
“So, I think that whatever they have they should go to court and defend themselves, “he said.
