<<Print>>

A member of the legal team of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Baba Jamal, has stated that his party’s petition to the Supreme Court about the 2020 Presidential Election declaration by the Electoral Commission has to do with satisfying the constitutional position which makes someone a legitimate President.

According to him, the opposition NDC has every reason to believe that Nana Akufo-Addo did not win the 2020 Presidential Election as declared by Mrs Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, the former Member of Parliament for Akwatia Constituency insisted that the Electoral Commission has given conflicting figures, making it difficult for the NDC to accept that Presidential result as per their calculation, the figures provided by the EC does not make Nana Akufo-Addo the President of Ghana.

He stressed that the NDC is convinced that the figures provided by the Electoral Commission (EC) does not meet the constitutional provision, as to the opposition party, none of the Presidential Candidates including its Presidential Candidate John Mahama got the 50%+1 vote required to become a President.

"We want to work with the figures of the Electoral Commission (EC) because if we should work with our figures, people might think that we have compromised the figures. We are going to the Supreme Court with the same EC figures which have been changed twice. If you look at the figures of the EC, in the calculation of the Commission, Nana Addo did not get 50%+1 vote and so if someone does not understand this, it surprises me," he said.

He added that the Electoral Commission (EC) has succeeded in confusing everyone as it is now difficult for people to work with figures the Commission has given; thus, the gazetted figures are different from the figures declared by the EC on the 9th and 10th of December.

“EC made a declaration on the 9th December and on the 10th December, she came out to say that there was a mistake in the figures used to declare the Presidential Election results on the 9th December, but the mistake cannot affect the declared Presidential results and when the Commission was going to gazette the results, she gazetted the 9th December declaration which she said there was a mistake. So, right now which figures are we working with in the country? Is it the 9th December figures or the 10th December figures or the later amended figures that were gazetted?”

He mentioned that it is possible for someone to win an election but cannot become the President; thus, the law of the country does not talk about winning the election alone except that the person obtains 50%+1 vote and more.

“Our law does not talk about winning the election alone but it says that if you win the election, you have to get 50%+1 vote to become the next President . . . so if someone says that he has won the election, it does not mean that he should be made the President,” he said.

He noted that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will continue not to recognise Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as President of the Republic until the Supreme Court is done with the calculation of the Presidential results and states its position on the election.