Dr. Bawumia’s performance as witness in the ongoing election petition case before the Supreme Court is interesting in various respects. It appears that his strategy so far has been to provide essentially the same response to any question that has been put to him. His response generally has been to say that on the face of the pink sheets there have been statutory violations, irregularities and malpractices committed that calls for the annulment of 4.6 million or so votes.
What he has so far failed to do is provide full proof evidence of who committed the violations, irregularities and malpractices that he has consistently referred to. Is Dr. Bawumia saying categorically that the violations, irregularities and malpractices were committed by EC officials, NDC officials, The President, NPP polling Agents (exulted observers) CPP officials, PNC officials or by all Ghanaians voters? Has he introduced any evidence in court giving details as to how these so called violations, irregularities or malpractice were committed and the specific events that confirm his allegations?
Is he saying that the Pink Sheets on their face provide all the evidence that is required to annul 4.6 million votes of Ghanaians voters? The fact that there are errors or omissions on a pink sheet is definitely not proof that a malpractice has occurred. The fact that a presiding officer failed to sign a pink sheet is clearly not evidence of malpractice or violation strong enough as a basis to nullify millions of votes that were not challenged or disputed during the process of counting or collation at polling stations and collation centres.
In other words the petitioners have failed to back their claims with specific instances from polling stations and collation centres that confirm their wild claims.
Dr. Bawumina may be eloquent but is that alone enough to produce a credible case before the Supreme Court? Absolutely not. Providing blanket and general answers to specific questions being put to him is definitely not enough to convince anyone that he has a credible case.
Indeed it is quite surprising that Dr. Bawumia has been led to the slaughter house by his party colleagues and a defunct flagbearer who pride themselves in being legal luminaries in Ghana, armed with very scanty details to support his claim.
I suggest that Nana Akuffo Addo himself mounts the witness box to defend this very weak and ill motivated petition. It appears that a decision was made by the petitioners to pursue this petition at all cost to destabilize the presidency of President John Mahama and keep certain people in the lime light even after their failed and miserable performance in the 2012 elections.
As Dr. Wereko Brobbey recently stated, this case is so weak that in the end it would create a credibility crisis for the NPP which would take the party a while to recover from.
To attack the credibility of a vital state institution such as the Electoral Commission with such a flawed petition is definitely bad judgment. The mistakes and errors in judgment that have characterized this petition is enough to show why Ghanaians rejected Nana Akuffo in the 2012 general elections. They could definitely not trust the destiny of Ghana to leadership that is this reckless.
Ghana will not die!
Long live President Mahama
Report by: Mensah Dekportor
NDC Germany Communication Director
Email: cmdekportor@gmail.com
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