Joyce Bawah Mogtari, Special Aide to former PresidentJohn Mahama, the Petitioner in the ongoing Election 2020 Presidential Petition hearing at the Supreme Court, has observed that asking the Petitioner to bring out a different figure to show his disagreement with the December 7, 2020, election results is not relevant to the case before the Court.
She explained that the Petitioner, through his lawyers and witnesses, was able to tell the Supreme Court that based on the figures of the Electoral Commission (EC), named as First Respondent, the declaration by Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of EC, was unconstitutional.
Ms Mogtari pointed out that the First Respondent, through an unsigned press release, admitted that there were errors with the figures, yet they decided not to testify at all and quizzed, “How can the court determine there were errors without their evidence?”
“What is also strange is that the number they put out in their “correction” on December10, 2020 for total valid votes cast is not the figure they are giving in their answer as the figure for total valid votes cast and so how can that be? Yet they will not give evidence to explain what exactly the right figure is,” she said.
Former President Mahama is praying the Supreme Court to annul the results of the elections as declared by Mrs Mensa the Chairperson of EC and the Returning Officer of Election 2020 on December 9.
He contends that the figures from the First Respondent showed clearly that none of the two presidential candidates (President Nana Akufo-Addo and former President Mahama) met the constitutional threshold of winning the elections with more than 50 per cent of the total valid votes.
All the parties involved in the case have submitted their closing statements to the Supreme Court after they submitted their written addresses to the Court before it set March 4, 2021, for judgement on the petition. –ghanaweb.com
