NDC decision to file election petition in court long overdue – NPP

The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has welcomed the decision of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to head to the court to challenge the outcome of the 2020 polls.

The NDC’s legal team has said a petition will be filed at the Apex Court by December 30, 2020, to possibly overturn the declaration of Nana Akufo-Addo as President-elect.

Some leaders and fanatics of the NDC have protested in parts of the country to show disapproval of the declared results from the December 7, polls.

Speaking to Citi News, General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu said the decision of the NDC to go to court is long overdue.

“It is their right and that is what we expected them to have done instead of staging those needless demonstrations. For me, they are a responsible opposition and having big-time markets being burnt down, we should have heard a comment from them. We should have heard them solidarizing with our great market women, but we haven’t heard anything so far”, he noted.

The Electoral Commission (EC) announced President Akufo-Addo as the rightful winner of the December 7 polls on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, despite concerns raised by the opposition NDC.

The NDC flagbearer, John Mahama, has refused to accept President Akufo-Addo's election victory.

He described the election results announced by the EC as “fictionalised.”

“I stand before you tonight unwilling to accept the fictionalised result of a flawed election,” Mr. Mahama had said at a press conference. What we witnessed across the country from Monday 7th December 2020 exposed a deliberate plan to manipulate and predetermine the results of the election in favour of the incumbent candidate Nana Akufo-Addo,” he added.

Live telecast of election petition

Meanwhile, a member of the NDC legal team, Abraham Amaliba, says the party will put in a request for a live broadcast of the hearing of their petition contesting the 2020 general elections in the Supreme Court as witnessed in 2012.

Mr. Amaliba told Citi News such a request will be in the interest of fairness.

“We expect to be treated fairly, this is a national issue. We also expect that if we are able to make our case beyond a reasonable doubt, I am sure that the Supreme court will hold that Nana Akufo-Addo did not attain the required 50 +1 votes. Indeed, we also expect that the petition will be telecast live. Any attempt to hinder that will create the impression that the hearing is not going to be fair, so we will put in the request to have it telecast live,” he indicated.

— citinewsroom