Mahama’s petition focuses on errors but not validity of polls - Oppong Nkrumah

A spokesperson of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s legal team in the election petition, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has said John Dramani Mahama’s suit only complains about errors and not the validity of the election.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, January 11, 2021, he expressed that Mahama’s arguments fall short of a proper election petition.

“It [the petition] does not attack the validity of the election as a proper election petition should do. It merely complains about errors in the formal declaration”.

Errors such as the fact as instead of saying total votes cast she [Jean Mensa] said total valid votes. Errors such as, instead of saying 51.29 percent, she said 51.59 percent,” Oppong Nkrumah insisted.

Mr. Oppong Nkrumah suggested that Mr. Mahama ought to have highlighted issues that compromised the results.

“When you do an election petition, and you want to attack the validity of the election, you make the case that the election was defective in this number of polling stations or this number of places.”

The EC announced Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the winner of the 2020 general election as he polled 51.59 percent of the valid votes while Mr. Mahama got 47.37 percent.

However, Mr. Mahama is praying the court annuls President Nana Akufo-Addo’s re-election saying that neither he nor the incumbent attained a clear majority during the 2020 polls.

In a 12-page response, lawyers of President Akufo-Addo described Mahama’s petition as “incompetent, frivolous and vexatious” and asked the Supreme Court to dismiss it.

They argued that the claims made by Mr. Mahama “are not supported by the facts pleaded in the Petition”.