Petition Hearing: Asiedu Nketia requests calculator while under cross-examination

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Johnson Asiedu Nketia on Friday, January 29 requested a calculator to enable him add figures to make his case while being cross-examined by lawyer for the 1st Respondent, the Electoral Commission (EC) in the ongoing election petition hearing.

He was accordingly, given the calculator by the court amidst laughter from some persons who were in the Supreme Courtroom.

The petitioner, Mr John Dramani Mahama had picked him and another member of the NDC Mr Michael Kpessah-Whyte to testify in the case.

Mr Nketia had told the court in his witness statement that there has never been any election in which the 1st Respondent, the Electoral Commission (EC) has admitted a catalogue of errors than in the 2020 presidential elections.

He said that: “In no previous Presidential Election in the Fourth Republic in Ghana has there been such a catalogue of admitted errors as in what happened after the 7th December 2020 Presidential elections.

“In all previous Presidential Elections, results collated at each constituency collation centre were transmitted directly by fax from 1st Respondent’s regional offices (without collation), to what is usually referred to as the ‘strongroom’ at its head office in Accra, and handed over to the representatives of the candidates, for them to scrutinize and then certify.

“In those previous Presidential Elections, when 1st Respondent declared the final results, they were based on the collated results from the constituencies which were duly certified by representatives of the candidates in the strong room,” Mr Asiedu Nketia added.