NPP's case will fall at the Supreme Court – Lawyer Amaliba

A member of the governing NDC's legal team, Abraham Amaliba has said that the opposition NPP's challenge of President Mahama's victory at the highest court of the land, “will come to naught”.

The NPP on Friday formally begun its legal challenge of the electoral results, which the leadership of the party believed were rigged to favour incumbent President, John Mahama and petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify the declaration and invalidate some 1.342 million votes from the total valid votes cast.

The party said the electoral processes were fraught with irregularities deliberately created by President Mahama and the Electoral Commission, to 'help' him [Mahama] to win the Presidential election.

Among the irregularities listed by the NPP is the fact that EC officials at some polling centres defied provisions of Constitutional Instrument (CI) 74, (3) which required voters to go through the biometric verification before they can vote, and allowed voters in some areas to cast their ballots even though the biometric verification devices could not authenticate their identities.

President Mahama, whose electoral victory is being challenged, is first respondent while the Electoral Commission is second respondent.

Speaking on news analysis and current affairs programme, News File broadcast live on Joy News TV and Joy FM Saturday, Mr. Amaliba said joining the president as first defendant in the suit, is in violation of Article 57 (5) of the constitution which states; “The President shall not, while in office as President, be personally liable to any civil or criminal proceedings in court”.

According to him, although Mr. Mahama was a candidate in the just ended elections held on December 7 and 8, 2012, his role as President will be distracted if he has to be going to court to defend himself.

Furthermore, Mr. Amaliba said the CI 74, (3) regulating the conduct of elections based on which the NPP is challenging the results, “cannot be used to deny a citizen of his right to vote”. He said the “that law [CI 74 (3)], cannot stand toe-to-toe with the constitution”.

“Verification is not identification; it is simply to validate and ensure that the person is the one who is voting,” Mr. Amaliba stressed.

He demanded of the NPP to prove how the President colluded with the EC to manipulate the election results in his favour.

Responding to Mr Amaliba, a leading member of the NPP, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong insisted his party's petition “is standing on solid grounds”.

Mr. Agyepong maintained that, the fact that some red sheets came through without the signatures of the EC's officials, means there were no presiding officers at the polling centres in question which means the results are invalid and must therefore not be counted.

He said the NPP and its leadership could not condone a practice "where people go to queue and vote but their votes will not be counted”.

Story by Ghana/Myjoyonline.com