Election 2020: Judges can be fallible just as EC – Ayariga to NPP

The Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga has said no amount of pressure from the New Patriotic Party(NPP) will stampede the NDC into making hasty decisions to go to court over the outcome of the 2020 polls being contested.

Ayariga contends that if the NDC should drag the EC to court over the flawed elections, it would do so strategically, notwithstanding the fact that it has some 19 days to make concrete steps towards a legal fight.

“Why are you hurrying NDC when NDC has 19 more days to decide to go to court? Why are you stampeding the NDC into taking a decision about going to court? People think that they can stampede the NDC into taking a decision about going to court…so what? that makes you more comfortable?” he questioned in an interview with GHOne TV on Thursday.

He argued that the impression that the mistakes of the Election Management Body(EMB) could be corrected by the judiciary is a misguided belief.

Ayariga noted that if the NDC should decide finally to go to court, it would do so strategically.

“…I keep telling people that just the same way that NDC feels that the Electoral Commission has made mistakes, the Judges there are only nine, they can also make a mistake. So the impression that the court is this infallible body before which if you appear every mistake will be corrected, it’s just an option. Not a question of trusting the courts it’s just a question of strategy; the NDC has to decide,” he said.

The NDC Presidential Candidate, John Mahama has said that his party is conducting a forensic audit into the “flawed” elections indicating the conclusion of the exercise will determine their next line of action.

“We are currently doing a forensic audit of all the constituencies first to establish what happened there and then secondly to re-confirm the figures that we have. Because this case might end up in court, I don’t know, I cannot mention anything for now, but we are doing an audit, and based on that, we’ll take whatever decision we need to take.

“But I think that the incompetence that the EC has shown, it would be useful for us to do a forensic audit of the EC’s own systems and the numbers to come to what the final number of the EC is. Because as at now I don’t know what number they’re going to gazette,” the former leader said.

NDC rejects 2020 election results

The NDC has rejected the results of the polls which gives the NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo over 51% of the valid votes cast. They have accused the Electoral Commission of rigging the polls for the incumbent.

NDC flagbearer John Mahama publicly rejected results of the 2020 polls in his first presser after the EC declaration of the results.

“In respect of the Presidential elections: the facts and figures available to us from pink sheets and other evidence that has unfolded across the country, indicate that numerous steps have been taken to manipulate the results of the election in favour of the incumbent President. This calls into question the credibility of one of our most important institutional pillars of democracy—the Electoral Commission. It is now obvious to many objective minds that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission has been used to manipulate results from the various constituencies and in that process seek to subvert the sovereign will of the Ghana People."

“We will not accept anything short of a declaration of the legitimate results, which point to an NDC Parliamentary Majority. 3 My Brothers and Sisters, advisedly, since the inception of the Fourth Republic, final election results have always been declared within 72 hours to allow for a thorough and diligent collation”.