Monday,
December 31, 2012
It is clear that the
more we look deeply into the NPP’s rejection of the outcome of the Presidential
elections, the more we see hidden truths about why the party’s leaders and
supporters are the way they are today, and where they have dragged matters to.
It is their
constitutional right to use the judiciary to seek redress in this case; and it
is our constitutional right too to interrogate the implications of what they
have set out to do and how they do it. As citizens, we expect that our country
will be ruled by those who deserve the people’s mandate. That is why what the
NPP has begun doing since it became clear that its Akufo-Addo couldn’t set foot
on Canaan must not be lost on us.
Indeed, he was in
Jerusalem before the elections but the Walls of Jericho didn’t fall for him to
enter the Promised Land when the bugles were blown at the polls. The lawsuit at
the Supreme Court seeks to unravel why. An obviously intriguing pursuit in the
labyrinth of the law, isn’t it?
We will continue to unpack that lawsuit filed by the NPP in
pursuit of what it calls “justice” for its cause, which ultimately—as the party’s
leaders hope and pray—will translate into the declaration of the defeated Akufo-Addo
as the winner of the Presidential elections held earlier this month.
We acknowledge the zeal with which the NPP is pursuing this
matter and point to the bloated optimism of its members that the Supreme Court
will determine the case in their favour.
One may quickly ask, though: What is the basis of this bloated
optimism? Very straightforward and easy to explain: documentary evidence (in
terms of figures and video recordings of goings-on before, during, and after
the elections).
The NPP leaders and supporters claim to have “incontrovertible
evidence” of irregularities during the elections that have deprived their
Akufo-Addo of an outright victory, citing figures that they themselves put
together from about 24,000 polling stations (out of the nationwide 26,000) as
the substance of their “incontrovertible evidence” with which to fight their
case.
Why do they think that the Supreme Court will accept their “incontrovertible
evidence” as the truth inviolate and reject the official election results
certified and gazetted by the Electoral Commission, which was endorsed by all
the international and local election monitors and the media?
Will the Supreme Court be so constrained by incompetence or
mischief to see eye-to-eye with the NPP and its one-sided version of what happened
at the polls and reject the official position of the constitutionally mandated
institution charged with conducting the elections?
Why will the Supreme Court do so? Because it has NPP allies
in its fold? Because it places the NPP’s partisan interests above the larger
national one, considering the chaos that is likely to erupt if the Supreme Court
acts imprudently to undermine the will of the voters, especially all those in
the 8 out of the 10 regions that overwhelmingly endorsed President Mahama? Or
even the hundreds of thousands in the two regions won by Akufo-Addo?
Lets remember that this quantum of “incontrovertible evidence”
being propagated by the NPP runs counter to what the Electoral Commission
officially released, based on which it gazetted President Mahama as the winner.
In tandem with the EC’s records, independent election
monitors representing international and local institutions (CODEO) and the mass
media also publicized results that they themselves had collated or gathered
from authentic sources to confirm that the elections were free, fair, and
transparent. So has the People’s National Convention, one of the contestants.
Faint hints of complaints have come from Paa Kwesi Nduom and
his PPP, the CPP, and the NDP, but they haven’t followed up with any concrete
action to prove their dissension with facts and figures. Nothing came from the UFP
(Silence meaning consent in this case?).
The other contestants (Independent candidate Jacob Osei
Yeboah, and even the disqualified independent female candidate, Madam Donkor) agreed
with the official results and indicated their readiness to work with President
Mahama if given the chance.
Only the NPP has gone to court because it can’t bear not
seeing its Akufo-Addo in power. What for? Only God knows.
For the records, here is the substance on which the NPP’s
petition (or lawsuit) number J1/6/13, filed last Friday, is based:
i.
that 620,443 over voting occurred;
ii.
that 456,933 people voted without verification;
iii.
that 208,523 polling station results were not signed by EC
presiding officers;
iv.
that 50,278 polling centres had the same serial number; and
v.
that in 3,841 polling centres, results written in words did
not match the figures on the pink sheet.
The
NPP's running mate Mahamudu Bawmia noted that in all, 1.3 million votes were wrongfully
included in the tally, giving President Mahama an undue advantage. A member of
the NPP’s legal team, Asante Bediatuo, claimed that 99.9% of the irregularities
occurred in the strongholds of the NDC that boosted President Mahama’s
electoral fortunes. Thus, the plaintiffs intend to prove these allegations and
sway the Supreme Court to declare Akufo-Addo the winner instead.
Declaring
him winner means that he will be installed in office as Ghana’s President even
after the incumbent would have been so invested in office on January 7, 2013,
unless the Supreme Court restrains the inauguration.
Everything
indicates that the inauguration will come on as is being planned because the
case hasn’t yet been listed for hearing nor will the Supreme Court give any
order without first looking into the merit of the NPP’s petition. In any case,
the respondents (President Mahama and the EC) have 10 days to respond to the
lawsuit before the Supreme Court can decide when to begin sitting on the case.
Let those who are already optimistic of victory
at the Supreme Court hasten slowly lest they fall head-over-heels in a worse circumstance.
Ghana will continue to exist and thrive without Akufo-Addo in power.
If the NPP cannot provide enough security and be
vigilant to prevent malpractices at the ordinary national exercise of general elections,
where is the guarantee that when given the mandate it can secure the entire
country, its natural and human resources, to ensure stability and growth in
peace and tranquillity?
If
Akufo-Addo had revealed to us any pragmatic agenda for retooling and strengthening
state institutions under a government by him, the voters might have considered
him favourably before the elections. He didn’t say anything assuring apart from
the cacophonous howling and jabbering about free senior high school education.
Is
this the person to be invested in office through the workings of the judiciary
after the voters had exercised their free will to reject him? We will keep monitoring
the situation and will definitely throw in our ideas as and when necessary,
insults from the NPP members notwithstanding. Ghana deserves better than where
these malcontents are pushing it.
No matter what happens, Ghanaians want to put the
elections behind them and move on with their lives. Probably, with better
planning, those who know how to do politics will get their mandate again at
Election 2016.
Those chasing a mirage in the hot desert of the
Supreme Court can go ahead to expend their energies and resources doing so now.
By sundown, there will be no mirage ahead of them anymore. Politics’ labours
lost, indeed!!
I shall return…
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
·
Join
me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.
No comments:
Post a Comment