I plead with NDC: Give Ghanaians a break!

What is the Chief Justice aiming to achieve by complaining to the General Legal Council about post-judgement remarks made by Dr Dominic Ayine?

To set the legal records straight? To seek to punish the former Deputy Attorney-General and Law lecturer for poking a finger in the eyes of the seven (nine) Supreme Court justices who decided the outcome of the 2020 presidential election?

For practitioners of law, the exercise may be useful. One day, some lawyer will cite the General Legal Council’s judgement in this matter as precedent.

Beyond these considerations, my opinion is that Dr Ayine’s lecture should have been treated with silence. I question the quality of counsel being offered lately to people in authority.

Why, for instance, should the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government seek, directly or indirectly, to scupper the street demonstrations by the #Fix Ghana Movement? It’s needless.

Having said this, the big question is: Was Dr Ayine right in condemning both the verdict and conduct of the Supreme Court justices in the election petition hearing? Was it unusual for all seven justices to hold the same opinion on an issue?

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) had alleged that the EC inflated votes in favour of President Akufo-Addo in the Ashanti Region; that the EC stuffed ballot boxes in the region. I ask if it is reasonable to make such an allegation and not be compelled to prove it with evidence, namely figures, pink sheets, etc.

In court, Asiedu Nketiah, star witness for John Mahama, was shown the figures declared by the EC as the votes cast for both Mr Mahama and President Akufo-Addo. Under cross examination, the NDC scribe confirmed that per the figures declared by the EC, President Akufo-Addo met the threshold of more than 50 per cent “if the figures were correct”.

So how does anyone prove that the figures were correct? In court, Asiedu Nketiah did not have any figures to prove that President Akufo-Addo did not obtain 50 per cent.

One of the judges reminded him that as a political party, the NDC had assigned agents in all the 276 constituencies to collate figures. He then asked Asiedu Nketia three questions.

One, “From the reports of all these agents, what figure did Akufo-Addo obtain?” Just in case the NDC agents failed to submit the figures to the party, the judge asked Asiedu Nketiah a second question.

“From your own calculations, what were the valid votes cast in favour of the petitioner (Mahama)?” The third question was, “What figures, from your own calculations, did the second respondent (Akufo-Addo) get as the total valid votes cast in his favour?” 

To all three questions, the NDC general secretary replied, “My lord, I haven’t brought that figure to court.”

Allegations

Answer me, dear reader, especially if you are NDC. How else, in the fairest and most democratic court in the world, do people prove allegations, especially ones involving figures? In court, Asiedu Nketiah was given a calculator. Unless the court’s calculator was faulty, his own calculation showed that President Akufo-Addo won 51.59 per cent of the vote.

Up to this date, NDC supporters have been made to believe that the EC chair or someone acting on her behalf manipulated figures to put President Akufo-Addo out in front. Outside the court and to the media, the NDC had alleged that there was massive vote padding and other errors.

In court, all NDC brought were a few samples.

Not fair

This article is written because I think it is not fair that without any proof, and just for political advantage, the NDC has painted judges of the Supreme Court as people who cannot be trusted to be fair.

It amounts to holding Ghanaians to ransom for any group to threaten mayhem and violent street demonstrations just because it has numbers (four million). That is ungovernableness.

Long before the election itself, Mahama had sought to prove his allegation that “the incompetence of this EC is legendary”.

On September 22, he announced that, “I am cutting short my tour of the Bono Region to return to Accra because of the increasing reports of challenges with the voters register and the exhibition process. We’ll address a major press conference on the issues in due course.”

He rushed to Accra but he saw no challenges. He forgot to call a press conference to say so.

What is all this in aid of? Why is somebody interested in making Ghanaians think that the Supreme Court judges and the Chief Justice are a bunch of robots or a group with a partisan agenda?

Has it never happened that a panel of judges has been unanimous on rulings?

My own verdict is that Dr Ayine did not have a legal axe to grind. It was a political axe. 

The writer is the Executive Director,Centre for Communication and Culture,

E-mail: ashonenimil@gmail.com