Election Petition: 18 NDC members file writ

There was near stampede at the Supreme Court registry on Friday as National Democratic Congress (NDC) members trooped in to file joinders in the case in which three New Patriotic Party (NPP) leaders, including the party’s presidential candidate for the 2012 elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, are challenging the declaration of John Mahama as President.

At the last count, 18 individuals and groups, Daily Guide learnt, were able to file by the close of Friday to join the case.

This is aside the 10 groups made up of 80 individuals who had earlier filed to join the case in an obvious attempt to delay the process.

DAILY GUIDE has learnt that more people are likely to storm the court in the latest craze to be part of the landmark case.

However, the nine-member panel presided over by Justice William Atuguba has to decide whether all the NDC members coming in, in the name of public interest, have locus in the case, as the Electoral Commission is representing all voters in the process.

Other members of the panel are Justices Sophia O. Adinyira, Julius Ansah, Rose C. Owusu, Annin Yeboah, Jones Dotse, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Sule Gbadegbe and Vida Akoto-Bamfo.

The court has fixed March 14, 2013, to hear all the motions in order to set the date for hearing the petition.

The NPP presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, his running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the party’s National chairman, Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey are the petitioners in the case.

They have petitioned the court to investigate the results declared in 11,916 polling stations, stressing that they have evidence of irregularities and malpractices in those polling stations which could nullify the votes in those polling stations.

The Electoral Commission (EC) and President John Dramani Mahama are the respondents.

Nine different groups of NDC supporters, making up 80 individuals, have filed applications asking the Supreme Court to allow them to join the petition.

The joinder applications by the NDC supporters are seen as a ploy to delay the court process.

Delay

If the Supreme Court allows them to join, the progress made so far in the case would be grounded to allow the applicants to file their answers to the petition and therefore open the floodgate for more people to join.

Interestingly, the joinder applications are coming after the petitioners had furnished the respondents with “further and better particulars” of their case in which they indicated the polling stations where the alleged irregularities took place.

All the initial applications have the stamps of Urafiki Law Consult, Ghana Commercial Bank Main, 1st Floor, Near Meridian Hotel, Tema and this shows that they were all prepared from that chamber.

In fact, a cursory look at all the applications would show that they are initiating the action after the petitioners were made to provide details of all the polling stations where they claim irregularities or malpractices occurred.

All the applications state, “We are surprised to hear that the petitioners have in the present petition identified our polling station as one of those whose entire results should be annulled by the Honourable Court on grounds stated in the said petition.”