Akufo-Addo’s response to Mahama’s petition misleading - Abraham Amaliba
-President has responded to John Mahama’s election petition
-According to him, the petition is empty and must be thrown out
-Abraham Amaliba was, however, angered by the president response
Abraham Amaliba, a member of the National Democratic Congress’ legal team, has described President Nana Akufo-Addo’s response to John Dramani Mahama’s petition as misleading.
“That’s a disingenuous way of looking at the petition,” the private legal practitioner was quoted as saying.
In a 12-page reply to the former president’s Supreme Court’s challenge to his reelection for another four-year in the 2020 elections, President Akufo-Addo said the petition was incompetent without focus.
Source: Original
For him, the petition does not measure up to the legal criteria for an action invoking the jurisdiction of the apex court under Article 64(1) of the Constitution.
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The president continued that Mahama devoted an “overwhelming portion” of the petition making frail and unreliably erratic complaints about “the wrong aggregation of votes” and “votes padding.”
Akufo-Addo’s response, however, did not sit well with Amaliba. According to him, the president has no right to pronounce the petition tenable or otherwise.
“It is not for them to say. That is a decision for the Supreme Court,” he insisted.
Mahama, the presidential candidate of the NDC, in the 2020 general polls refused to concede defeat in the elections.
Akufo-Addo won the elections, declared the Electoral Commission (EC) on December 9, 2020.
He had 51.302% of the votes against Mahama’s 47.359%. The votes difference between the two candidates stood at 517, 231, representing a four percentage point, one of the highest since 1996.
Mahama in his Wednesday, December 30, 2020 petition asks for a re-run of the elections between him and Akufo-Addo, claiming that there was no winner contrary to the EC declaration.
Meanwhile, Akufo-Addo was sworn in as Ghana’s president for another four-year term on Thursday, January 7, 2021.
Heads of state from across Africa and dignitaries watch him took the oath of office at a ceremony in Accra.
In other news, the MP for Asawase, Muntaka Mubarak, has accused a Supreme Court judge of trying to bribe a female NDC MP to vote against Alban Bagbin during the Speakership election.
Bagbin took the oath of allegiance and office as the Speaker of Ghana’s eighth Parliament on Thursday, January 7, 2021.
Speaking to Joy News on Sunday, January 10, 2021, Mubarak disclosed how the said judge tried tirelessly to persuade the said female MP-elect [now MP] to vote against Bagbin’s nomination.
The judge promised her fuel for the entire four years she will be in Parliament, according to Mubarak.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
