Error on NDC petition inconsequential – Ayine

The former Deputy Justice Minister under the previous Mahama administration, Dr Dominic Ayine has has dismissed claims that the error on the party’s petition against the 2020 elections will have any impact on their case.

According to him, the error is inconsequential and can simply be corrected in court before the main case begins.

“It is a very minor error and has no consequence…if we go to court our counsel can ask for the error to be corrected, this is not anything that we should waste our breath on,” Dr Ayine Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East and member of the NDC legal team said on GHONE TV Thursday.

He explained that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was initially the 1st respondent when the petition was being drafted but that was later changed and the Electoral Commission was made the 1st respondent after suggestions from other lawyers.

Dr Ayine added after that change, it is likely the party’s lawyer forget to effect the changes throughout the entire petition reason why that minor error is found on the petition.

In relief ‘F’ on the NDC petition challenging the 2020 elections filed on Wednesday, the party is seeking a re-run of the election between Mr Mahama and president-elect Nana Akufo-Addo but inadvertently stated that the re-run should be held between Mr Mahama and the Electoral Commission which has led to mockery on social media.

Mr Mahama who was flagbearer of the NDC in the recent election filed a petition at the Supreme Court on Wednesday to formally challenge the results which saw President Akufo-Addo attaining the Presidency.

Mr. Mahama in an address Wednesday night said: ”Some people have asked me what I hope to gain by challenging the results of this election.

“Let me tell you: I want, perhaps, the very same thing that my opponent wanted when in 2012 he challenged the results of that election; I want the removal of doubt. I want for all of us to know that our elections should be free, fair, and safe—and that we do not have to settle for a process that leaves us confused, and with more questions than answers. I want a Ghana where institutions of state can be held to account”.

He stressed: “Where we can stand on principle and demand transparency without the risk of losing our lives. When people lose their lives—as seven people did—in the course of our elections, we are moving backwards not forward; we are unraveling the very fabric of our democracy; we are risking the loss of three decades worth of progress.

“When today we see armed military and militia in our collation centres and election outcomes declared at the point of a gun, for us who have witnessed our country’s journey through all its post-independence travails, we wonder if we have truly exorcised the ghosts of our tortuous past. We must continue to be a nation in which our young citizens have faith in our institutions, trust the rule of law, and rely on the presence of peace because there is justice”.