General News of Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Source: peacefmonline
As the New Patriotic Party prepares for the 2016 general election, it is pushing for water-tight mechanisms to be installed in the register used by the Electoral Commission to avoid a repetition of incidents that occurred in the aftermath of the 2012 general elections.
Going to court is not a place the party wishes to visit again after an election. This was a remark made by the flagbearer for the party, Nana Akufo-Addo, as he opened up on the need for the EC to compile a new voters’ register.
In Nana Addo’s introductory remarks at the Alisa Hotel on Tuesday, where the opposition party held a press conference and presented what the party termed “damning revelations” which should trigger the need for a new voters register in Ghana before the 2016 elections, he stated that “after the decision of the Supreme Court on the election petition, I (and many others) have said that the NPP will not be interested in taking another case of electoral malpractices to court.”
In the aftermath of the 7th December 2012 general elections, the New Patriotic Party filed a suit at the Supreme Court to contest the announced results.
The party was of the opinion that the election results were rigged in favour of the incumbent, President John Mahama; who they claim colluded with Electoral Commission officials to manipulate the results.
Despite the evidence they provided, the Supreme Court of Ghana, in a split decision, affirmed the declaration of John Dramani Mahama as the winner of the country’s closely fought 2012 presidential poll.