NPP to challenge election result in Supreme Court
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it will not accept the results of last Friday's Presidential Election announced by the Electoral Commission.
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It will therefore challenge the results at the Supreme Court
The party has challenged the figures announced by the EC, which declared the President, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, winner of the election.
According to the NPP, it had enough evidence to prove that the results were tampered with before they reached the EC.
The decision to go to court for redress followed a marathon meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party at the Alisa Hotel in Accra Tuesday.
The NPP has, since the declaration of the election results, forcefully insisted that the polls were rigged in favour of President Mahama, as a result of which the NEC has asked the party’s flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, not to concede defeat.
Addressing a large crowd of party supporters at the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra late afternoon Tuesday, after the NEC meeting, Nana Akufo-Addo reaffirmed the party’s stance not to accept the results of the presidential election.
He said the NPP had directed its lawyers to head to the Supreme Court to contest the outcome of the elections, 'which was fraught with deliberate discrepancies.'
Nana Akufo-Addo told the teeming supporters that the party had gathered enough evidence to support its case in the Supreme Court and urged them to remain calm, be law abiding and not indulge in anything that would mar the peace of the nation.
The NPP presidential candidate was in the company of his running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and other leading members of the party.
Nana Akufo-Addo said the NPP was law abiding and believed in the rule of law and the 1992 Constitution, adding that the leadership of the party had also accepted the decision of the NEC, the second decision-making body of the party after the national congress.
He said although the party members were bold and brave, they would not and should not indulge in any activity that would disrupt the peace and stability of the country.
There was heavy security presence at every corner or street around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. Crowd control vehicles were on hand to control any nasty situation that might occur.
Earlier, Briefing the media immediately after the NEC meeting, the National Chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, alleged after cross-checking 28 constituencies, the party had discovered that more than 100,000 votes were fraudulently added to President Mahama’s tally.
Explaining what he called a “systematic and pervasive pattern”, he said in most constituencies President Mahama’s votes were inflated, while Nana Akufo-Addo’s were reduced.
He said the NPP also had in its possession documentary and physical evidence of other fraudulent activities, such as the deliberate creation of illegal and parallel polling stations which he called “ghost polling stations” whose results found their way into the declared results.
According to Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey, Nana Akufo-Addo’s reduced votes and the inflated figures for President Mahama amounted to usurping the sovereign will of the people of Ghana in choosing their leaders through legitimate means, pointing out that “this systematic and coordinated manipulation materially affected the results of the elections, thereby rendering invalid the results of the December polls declared by the EC”.
He assured the supporters that the leadership of the party would not abandon them in their fight to ensure that the right thing was done.
The EC, on December 9, declared President Mahama winner of the polls. He polled 5,574,761 votes, representing 50.70 per cent of the valid votes cast, to beat his closest challenger, Nana Akufo-Addo of the NPP, who obtained 5,248,898 votes, representing 47.74 per cent of the votes cast.
Earlier the procession to the rally turned violent at a point when some irate members of the crowd physically attacked any passer-by seen in NDC T-shirt, writes Justice Baidoo
The angry supporters stayed at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle from midday till 6 p.m., with calls on NPP leaders to reject the EC’s figures.
The National Organiser of the party, Alhaji Mocktar Bamba, told the teeming crowd after a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Accra to discuss the party’s next line of action that the NPP was heading for court.
According to him, the party was exercising its constitutional right because it had been short-changed.
A leading member of the party, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, said the position that the NPP was taking was in the national interest, explaining that evidence available to the party showed clearly that its candidate had won the election and deserved to be declared President.
The decision to go to court, Mr Osafo-Maafo said, would serve as a precedent for all parties in the democratic process for future reference.
The General Secretary of the NPP, Mr Kwadjo Owusu-Afriyie, asked the supporters of the party to repeat the procession every day until the matter had reached its logical conclusion.
Story by Donald Ato Dapatem
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