Clerical errors on NDC petition inconsequential – Ayine

The former Deputy Justice Minister under the previous John Mahama administration, Dominic Ayine has said the errors made in the party’s petition against the 2020 elections is a minor error and does not have any consequence in law.

According to him, unlike the Electoral commission’s grave mistakes made in the recent elections which violate a constitutional principle, and the tenets of the constitution, the error found in their election petition is just a clerical error that can be corrected when the substantive case begins.

“I was surprised that even lawyers turned their attention to a very minor and insignificant error…It is a very minor error and has no consequence…if we go to court our counsel can ask for the error to be corrected, this is not anything that we should waste our breath on,” Dr Ayine Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East and member of the NDC legal team said on GHONE TV Thursday.

In explaining why the mistakes came about, Dr Ayine said President Akufo-Addo was initially the 1st respondent when the petition was being drafted but that was later changed and the Electoral Commission was made the 1st respondent after suggestions from other lawyers.

Flagberer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has petitioned the Supreme Court to annul the results of Election 2020.

Former President John Dramani Mahama further wants the court to order for a re-run of the polls hence the need to issue a fiat restraining President Akufo-Addo from holding himself as the President-elect.

Other reliefs

Other reliefs sought by the Former President include a declaration that the Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensa, breached the 1992 constitution, specifically Article 63(3) with the declaration that she made on December 9, 2020.

Also, the former President is asking the apex court of the land to declare that based on the data contained in the declaration “ no candidate satisfied” the more than 50 percent threshold required to be declared a winner of the presidential poll.