The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has filed an application for �further and better particulars�, asking the Supreme Court to order three petitioners to furnish it with certain documents.
This is in respect of the case in which three petitioners, including the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate in the December 7 & 8, 2012 general elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, are challenging the validity of the election of John Dramani Mahama as President, as declared by the Electoral Commission.
The initial respondents, President John Dramani Mahama and the EC, have already moved similar applications before the highest court of the land and the nine-member panel chaired by Justice William Atuguba is due to give its ruling tomorrow, February 5.
The court, in a 6-3 majority decision, ruled that the ruling NDC could join to be part of the petition and subsequently made it the 3rd respondent in the case.
According to the NDC, it filed the application for �further and better particulars� under Rule 69 A (4) of the Supreme Court (Amendment) Rules of C.I. 74.
The affidavits deposed to by NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah said that on December 28, 2012, �the petitioners filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the election of 1st respondent (President Mahama) as President of the Republic of Ghana.�
He said, �I have been advised by counsel and verily believe same to be true that whenever a party�s pleadings allege matters such as irregularity and malpractice, the facts supporting these must be stated with particularity.�
He said the petitioners �failed to do this by not providing the particulars I am requesting for�.
The NDC General Secretary said the �further and better particulars� that he is requesting �are material facts which we are entitled to and which if provided, will enable us know how to prepare for trial and also facilitate a fair disposal of the matters raised in the instant petition.�
The NDC, in its application, specifically wants �the particular polling stations where each of the irregularities pleaded allegedly occurred.�
The ruling party also wants particulars on the number of votes deducted by the petitioners from the respective votes declared in favour of the respective candidates.
Furthermore, the NDC wants particulars of the instances where the petitioners claimed that �votes earned by the 1st petitioner (Akufo-Addo) were unlawfully reduced whilst at the same time votes of the 1st respondent (Mahama) were illegally padded.�
The NDC again wants particulars of the petitioners claim that there was a �deliberate, well-calculated and executed ploy or a contrivance on the part of the respondents.�
It finally wants particulars of the petitioners claim that �the results declared by the 2nd respondent (EC) in 1st respondent�s favour were far in excess of the valid votes cast in his favour.�
In a related development, the NDC has filed its answer to the petition, averring among other things that the petitioners have no case and must be thrown out.
The response which looks like a rehash of the 1st respondent�s answer (President Mahama), denied each and every material allegation of fact and statement of law contained in the petition.
The NPP, on January 31, filed an amended statement to the petition, averring that after completing its analysis of all the pink sheets available to it, it has found substantially more electoral violations and malpractices.
The opposition party said the alleged irregularities now affect 4,670,504 votes out of the 10,995,262 �valid� votes cast.
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