NDC Responds To NPP Petition Amendment

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), has responded to the amended election petition filed on February 26, 2013 at the Supreme Court registry.

In its response, the NDC argued that the “particulars of the categories of alleged irregularities set out by the petitioners clearly overlap, and, therefore, adding the votes in these categories as the petitioners have done, amounts to double/multiple counting and is part of a pattern of obfuscation resorted to by petitioners to create an appearance of a real issue when there is none.”

It said it won the elections in eight out of 10 regions in the country and further argued that, “in bringing this petition before the honourable court, petitioners are acting in bad faith and that the petition is frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the this honourable court.”

“The results of the parliamentary elections that were also held on the same days were announced by officials of second respondent in the various constituencies and showed that the third respondent won 148 out of 275 seats in Parliament, thus attaining a clear majority, and that the NPP won 123 seats,” the NDC said in its response filed on its behalf by Law Trust Company.

“Members of Parliament, including those who stood on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party, have taken up their seats in Parliament,” the NDC’s response pointed out adding, “petitioners cannot consistently claim that the presidential elections were conducted irregularly, in respect of voter verification, for instance, while acknowledging the validity of the parliamentary elections on the basis of which members of parliament from their party have taken their seats in Parliament.”

The NDC, on whose ticket President Mahama stood for the elections held that polling agents representing the various presidential candidates including Nana Akufo-Addo “were present at the various polling stations and participated fully in all aspects of the process with a view to ensuring that the elections were free, fair and transparent”.

“Petitioners, through the acts of their polling agents at the various polling stations as well as acts of other representatives, clearly acknowledged that the presidential elections were validly conducted and claims to the contrary now by petitioners are an afterthought and in bad faith and cannot be countenanced,” the party held.

According to the NDC, the only point the petitioners began contesting the results of the election was long after vote counting at polling stations throughout the country in the presence of their polling agents when the tallies in the presidential election began to show that Nana Akufo-Addo had lost the election.

The NDC maintained that voters went through a process of verification, and had their identity checked before Casting their votes, adding, “the agents of the first petitioner who were present at all polling stations including the 11,916 polling stations were satisfied with the verification process and is belated.”

It said the unclear and unsubstantiated allegations of illegal votes in the petition, were an “attempt by the petitioners to deny certain Ghanaians of their constitutional right without any justification”.

It further buttressed its point by stating that the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) which represented various professional bodies in the country used its well-established methodology for verification of results and thus confirmed the tally of the EC which declared President Mahama as the winner of the polls.

The party also cited media houses as keeping regular tally cards from various polling stations around the country and “reported tallies consistent with that of the second respondent.”

The party further indicated that prior to the declaration of the results on December 9,2012, the EC gave the petitioners’ party the opportunity to prove allegations of irregularities in the presence of members of the Peace Council “and after consideration, the second respondent found no reason to defer announcement of the election results and proceeded with the said announcement.”

According to the NDC, spokespersons of the petitioners and those of the NPP had given different figures by which they claimed the votes of President Mahama had been illegally inflated “without ever giving a meaningful account of how this occurred.”

The NDC applied for a joinder three days after the filing of the petition and after legal battle between the lawyers for the NDC and the petitioners, the Supreme Court on January 22, 2013 gave the NDC the nod to join the petition.

Legal authorities

The party intends to rely on the Evidence Act, 1975 (NRCD 323); the 1992 Constitution; the Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574); the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2012 (C.I. 72); the Supreme Court, Amendment Rules, 2012 (C.I. 74); the Presidential Elections Act, 1992, PNDCL 285 and the Elections Regulations, 2012 (C.I. 75) to make its case.

The party also intends to cite three reported cases to uphold its position that its candidate won the December 7, 2012 presidential elections.

The General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, swore an affidavit in verification of the NDC’s answer to the amended petition.