I’m glad Mahama chose legal path over pockets of violence against EC and the state— Akufo-Addo
I’m glad Mahama chose legal path over pockets of violence against EC and the state— Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has lauded the Presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama for petitioning the Supreme Court over the Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) verdict on the just ended election.
He explained that the action of former President Mahama will bring an end to weeks of protest by supporters of the party.
Speaking in parliament during his final State of the Nation Address to end his first term of office in Accra on Tuesday, President Akufo-Addo noted that the election was organised in a free and fair manner despite the allegations raised by his opponent and the NDC.
“I recognise that my main opponent in the election, former President John Mahama, has gone to the Supreme Court to seek its intervention, and grant reliefs that he believes were compromised in the conduct of the elections.”
“It is good for the nation that, in the end, he chose the legal path, instead of the pockets of violence that have attended the rejection of the results by his party in the period after the elections,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo also used the platform to urge Ghanaians to make a “deliberate decision to invest in the rule of law and uphold the integrity of the institutions of state, so that no person or group of persons take the law into their own hands with impunity.”
His comment follows a decision by Mr Mahama, on Wednesday, December 30, 2020, to file a petition at the Supreme Court to challenge the outcome of the December 7, 2020, presidential elections.
This was after series of protest by supporters of the party over alleged voter fraud and irregularities in the polls.
In a statement issued after the filing of the suit, the NDC had said the petition details “serious violations of the 1992 Constitution by the Electoral Commission and its Chairperson and Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa in the conduct of their constitutional and legal responsibility.”
Former President Mahama is therefore seeking a declaration from the Supreme Court to the effect that, “the purported declaration of the results of the 2020 Presidential Election on the 9th day of December 2020 is unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.”
The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Nana Akufo-Addo won the election with 51.3 percent of the vote while Mr. Mahama followed with 47.7 percent of valid votes cast.
However, the NDC has refused to accept the results because of its claims of malfeasance in the polls.
Source: www.spotonnews.net
