Lawyer and Journalist, Samson Lardi Anyenini says the reliefs being sought by the flagbearer of the NDC, John Mahama in his election petition to the Supreme Court is a “dramatic shift” from the arguments he made prior to the lawsuit.
The petition, submitted to the Supreme Court on December 30, 2020, is a formal protest to the 2020 presidential election results declared by the Electoral Commission on December 9, 2020, in which President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was declared president-elect.
Prior to the petition, the NDC had claimed that their candidate, former President Mahama won the elections and as such should be declared president-elect. In fact the NDC Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi actually describe John Mahama as “president-elect.”
However, in the petition, John Mahama stated that neither candidates won the election because none of them had enough votes to obtain the 50% plus 1 required to win the December 7 polls.
Commenting on the allegations in the petition, Lawyer Samson Anyenini said “when you hear claims that, by the NDC’s own computation, [former] president Mahama had secured a win and that he ought to have been declared a winner – then you read the petition and it says President Mahama did not win, Akuffo-Addo did not win because neither made nor crossed the threshold of more than 50% of total valid votes therefore there ought to be a runoff, that is a dramatic shift from their initial claim.”
He noted that the NDC has been talking about some of the evidence they have such as vote padding and so on and so forth, saying, “That is their story and at this time, it is still their story. It will now go through the mill. It will be tested; tested in cross-examination tested in superior argument.”
“We have heard words like ‘stolen verdict’, we have heard expressions like fictionalized and fraud, which may not sit within the present suit,” he called.
Samson Ayenini however indicated that owing to the fact that the details of the petition will be subjected to the scrutiny of the highest order by the apex court, it was essential that former President Mahama presents a case that will survive superior argument.
“If their evidence and argumentations survive the test of judicial scrutiny, then they will win. But if the opponents bring a superior argument it is also possible that they will not win,” he said.