The declaration of President Mahama after the 2012 polls was not without snags as the opposition New Patriotic Party indicted the EC of fraudulently declaring the candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress as the winner. There was a whirlwind over the country by the claim of the NPP to contend the decision of the EC at the Supreme Court which after days of gathering evidence came to fruition on Friday 28th of December, 2012.
The New Patriotic Party promised their supporters and the entire Nation of gathering incontrovertible, rock solid, gargantuan and unprecedented evidence to present to the Supreme Court to have the decision of the EC overturned and declare their Candidate Nana Akufo-Addo the President elect. It seems the NPP has forgotten of what they need to do from the petition presented to the Supreme Court. It sounded and seen more like allegations of electoral fraud against the EC than the promise of evidence to their cohorts.
The NPP promised to shock Ghanaians with what they called undisputable evidence and truly shocked their supporters and Ghanaians with the most ridiculous and poignant though deserving allegations in a petition to the Supreme Court’s Registry. It was bewildering to many by the so called evidence promised Ghanaians by the NPP with the entire legal luminary in their possession to present such spurious document to the Supreme Court for a high profile case like this. Indeed, desperation can lead a royal to serfdom in the wake of vaulting ambition.
Many people believed that, the opposition NPP is only engaging in the court tussle as a smokescreen to cover up their own incompetence. This is because they have woefully failed to unseat the NDC government as a promised to their credulous plebeians in the just ended elections. The NPP which claimed they have the men finally fell under the mocking uppity of the NDC scribe who called them “blockheads”. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, says “he grossly erred in perceiving the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to be astute legal luminaries as he now considers them as a bunch of “blockheads" masquerading as “bookworms”. It is obviously vindictive from the petition presented to the Supreme Court for anybody to mistakenly consider the NPP as eulogize legal brains.
Here are the summary of the substance of the petition to the Supreme Court: a) OVER VOTE DUE TO TOTAL VOTE EXCEEDING BALLOT PAPERS ISSUED TO VOTERS
(b) VOTING WITHOUT BIOMETRIC VERIFICATION
(c) SAME SERIAL NUMBERS FOR DIFFERENT POLLING STATIONS
(d) MISSING PRESIDING OFFICER'S SIGNATURE ON REDSHEET
(e) WORDS AND FIGURES DO NOT MATCH
These are allegations of electoral fraud and cannot amount to evidence. Again, they are irregularities of electoral processes which are patent characteristics of every modern democracy in the world. As stated by Magaret Thatcher, “Democracy is the worst system of government except others”. The world is yet to discover a system of government which is more perfect than democracy.
The NPP went further to state that, the Supreme Court should nullify the declaration of President Mahama by the EC and pronounced Nana Akufo-Addo as the winner of the 2012 polls based on the allegations they presented to the Court as evidence. The NPP themselves conceded some irregularities in the election but quickly pointed out that, the NDC candidate is the largest beneficiary of the irregularities. “The irregularities led to 1,340,018 votes being wrongly counted as part of the results of the 2012 presidential election. These votes were largely to the benefit of the NDC presidential candidate”.
What the aforesaid score means is that, the NPP candidate and other candidates also benefited from the irregularities, taking the word “largely” into consideration. Therefore, what moral right does the NPP have to ask the Supreme Court to pronounce Nana Akufo-Addo the winner of the 2012 elections? What exactly is the evidence to make the NDC candidate an illegitimate President elect? I think the wise men in the NPP are finally resting at the doorstep of the NDC which truly made them bad losers before the glaring eyes of Ghanaians.
Again, the NPP agreed some irregularities in the entire elections. If it were so, why should the Supreme Court nullify or overturn the verdict of the EC and make Nana Addo-Addo the legitimate President of Ghana instead of nullifying the entire 2012 general elections? This is why the former VRA boss in the Kuffour government described the NPP as “complicit in burglary and must let sleeping dogs lie” but quickly received swipe from Sammy Awuku, Nana Akomea and Kwabena Agyapong. Interestingly, from the petition presented, it can be said with all alacrity that, “Tarzan” was right and vindicated by the very people who spitefully lashed him with derogatory remarks.
Needless to say, from the layman’s understanding, the NPP petition will not pass judicial muster at the registry not to talk of considering sitting by our eminent Justices. The well acclaimed lawyers of the NPP have done a great deal of disservice to the party by urging their leaders to proceed to the Supreme Court with such bogus allegations as evidence. After the Supreme Court throws the petition back at them, it will not only create confusion among those who believe the party is treading on dangerous grounds but will also bring embarrassment in the rank and file who have so much confidence to succeed in the legal battle to their proletariats.
In spite of the ransacking of brains to make a case out of no case, some big wigs in the New Patriotic Party headed by the former President are making some preemptive and expedient suggestion not to drag the name of the party further into mad but the Akufo-Addo led legal luminaries have already contrived the legal process to tear the party apart at the end. Information closed to the former President J A Kuffour indicates that, many stalwarts are not in support of Akufo-Addo’s decision to contest the election at the Supreme Court since the evidence in their possession will rather implicate them. They believe that decision seeks to tarnish the image of the party which will have a long term negative impact towards the 2016 election.
In sum, it is hard to reconcile the evidence put before the Supreme Court and the demand by the NPP to nullify and declare Nana Akufo-Addo the President elect in such bizarre circumstances of electoral results contention. The NPP has further exposed their complicity in their explicit allegations as evidence in their petition to the Supreme Court.
If there were electoral irregularities as affirmed by the NPP in their petition, why should the Supreme Court nullify President Mahama’s declaration and hold the same irregularities intact to declare Nana Akufo –Addo the President elect? To make matters worse, the judges of the Supreme Court will educate the legal brains in the NPP about the legality of making the President as the second respondent in their suit. This is going to be an interesting case but regretful to the NPP for failing to do the right thing.
Kashaa Nuhu
Babnuh11@yahoo.com
