Jean Mensa has a close familial relationship with First Lady - Asiedu Nketia’s witness statement

Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the NDC says, Jean Adukwei Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), was biased in the December 7, 2020 elections because of her “close familial relationship” with first lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo.

Ghana’s EC Chairperson, Jean Adukwei Mensa was appointed in 2018 by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

In his witness statement submitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, Asiedu Nketia averred that the EC Chairperson “at all material times in the conduct of her responsibilities, [was] biased by prejudice in favour of the 2nd Respondent against the Petitioner”.

According to Asiedu Nketia, Article 296 of the 1992 Constitution requires the Electoral Commission and its Chairperson not to be “biased either by resentment, prejudice or personal dislike” in exercising any discretionary power, but they are required to exercise such powers “in accordance with due process of law”.

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is the 2nd Respondent in the 2020 election petition filed at the Supreme Court by the NDC’s flagbearer John Dramani Mahama.

Asiedu Nketia in his testimony to support his flagbearer, further, indicated that the Chairperson of the 1st Respondent, namely the EC, who also served as the Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, determined in good faith that her declaration on December 9, 2020, was in error.

However, he explained, “her constitutional duty to be fair and candid required her, among other things, to acknowledge the error, set aside her erroneous declaration and proceed on the path to correcting her error, respecting the rights of all candidates including [the] Petitioner, to participate in the process towards the making of such a correction.”

He stated further that the lack of transparency regarding figures thrown up by one or more officials of the 1st Respondent seeking to justify, after the event, Jean Mensa’s December 9, 2020, purported declaration, “undermines the whole attempt at ‘correction’ of what was indisputably an error-ridden declaration and shows that figures were simply being cooked to achieve a predetermined outcome that had nothing to do with actual votes cast in the President Election for the various candidates.”

Read below the full witness statement of the Petitioner.