Will Jean Mensa be in the box add to Mahama’s figures? Gabby quizzes

Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a member of the NPP, wants to know if Jean Mensa, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, being in the witness box will do any magic to the declared presidential figures for John Dramani Mahama.

Mahama and the NDC are in court, among other reliefs, seeking a redress to the constitutionality and validity of Jean Mensa, per her declaration of total votes cast in the December polls, against the claim that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo did not receive the 50 plus percent, hence did not win the elections.

But, speaking on JoyNews' Newsfile on Saturday, February 13, 2021, Gabby wondered why the lawyers for the petitioner, John Mahama, have been so bent on getting Jean Mensa into the witness box before they can properly make their case.

"The circumstances are very different. In 2013, John Mahama won by 5,574,761 votes and that was 50.7%. Akufo-Addo got 5,248,898 that was 47.74%. In order for John Mahama to drop below the 50% threshold, you needed to take away 77,131 from them - just that. The difference between Akufo-Addo and John Mahama was 325,863.

"What was the evidence presented before the court? The petitioner said that there were more than 2 million duplicate pink sheets, which then goes to the heart of the authenticity of the elections. And then they spoke about polling stations that they were not aware of. That also goes to the credibility of the results from those areas. They spoke about over-voting in 1722 polling stations. The spoke about voting without biometric verification and when you look at all these, the sum total, even when you take over-voting alone, that would have dropped John Mahama down.

"When you take voting without verification alone, that would have dropped John Mahama below the 50%. So there were all these issues. On the face of it, if the Electoral Commissioner at the time, was to elect to say that I am not going to go into the witness box, that would have been suicidal.

"But in this case, you are talking about less than 5000 votes that you are challenging. That's all it is. So, assuming Jean Mensa goes to the box, will her testimony add to John Mahama's votes or take away from Akufo-Addo's votes? And what will that do for them?" he quizzed.