NPP FILES TODAY

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday December 28, 2012.

Barely any last minute hitch, the opposition News Patriotic Party (NPP) is expected to file its much awaited suit today to contest the Electoral Commission (EC) declaration of John Dramani Mahama as the President-elect in the just ended general elections.

 According to sources the party will be asking the court to strike out nearly one million illegal votes credited to John Mahama.

The party will be holding a press conference this morning after filing the process at the Supreme Court. “The conference, which will be held on Friday, 28^th December 2012, will be addressed by NPP Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey; the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo; and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice Presidential Candidate of the NPP,” an invitation sent by Nana Akomea, the party’s Communications Director said.

Many anticipated that the NPP was going to file the petition in court at least yesterday since it declared its intention to contest the election results but a party source told DAILY GUIDE that they were taking their time to file “a very complete process.”

On Tuesday December 18, 2012, NPP’s presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo indicated in a written letter to the Supreme Court to avail himself of the legal opportunities available to him for redress in the disputed electoral results.

This was after the party’s National Executive Committee and party elders have met on December 11, to declare that the NPP was not going to accept the election results until the court investigated the allegations of fraud in the process.

EC Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan on December 10 called the results for President John Mahama in spite of opposition claims that the EC needed to investigate alleged manipulation of figures before the declaration since they suspected the results had been fixed.

According to the NPP, it had evidence that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) colluded with some election officials to fix the results in favour of President Mahama.

In spite of the protest, the EC went ahead to gazette the results on December 11, without taking into consideration, the protest raised by the NPP.

As a result, the NPP has been compiling what it calls ‘hard and compelling evidence’ to prove that the EC indeed massaged the people’s verdict for President John Mahama on December 7.

The delay in filing the petition is causing anxiety among some Ghanaians, particularly, NPP supporters who want the leadership of the party to be decisive on the matter.