NPP Usurps The Powers Of The Supreme Court

By Margaret Jackson

June 20, 2013

The NPP are at it again! They are always looking for loopholes to penetrate! And this time round they made some outrageous and disrespectful comments in a statement they issued over the weekend, that seeks not only to create unnecessary panic and confusion in the country, but also demonstrates NPP’s insincerity while putting the integrity of the pending Supreme Court (SC) judgement on the petition challenging the 2012 Presidential election results into serious doubt.

The statement by the NPP which is unethical, self-serving, meaningless, illogical, lacks basic reasoning in arithmetic and shows disrespect to the justices of the SC, was solely intended to undermine KPMG’s report on the counting of pink sheets and its effect on the final judgement of the petition case.

While I condemn the statement by the NPP in the strongest possible terms, I am asking NDC supporters to remain resolute while ignoring the baseless argument put forward by the NPP. The NDC teeming supporters should know that they are on solid grounds as far as the petition case is concerned; therefore, they should just have faith in God.

The NDC supporters should never allow themselves to be drawn into this deliberate but bogus attempt by the NPP to cause confusion, destabilize the peace and stability of the country by their subtle attempt to determine how the SC ruling is going to be. This is an attempt by the NPP to usurp the powers of the justices of the SC, therefore, NDC supporters and all well-meaning Ghanaians should dismiss the NPP’s statement with the contempt that it deserves.

The NPP in a statement that was purposely issued to douse the possible downside they will get from the KPMG audit following their numbers which do not add up, made contemptible comments that their flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his two petitioners, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia and Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, only need the SC to nullify just 1,500 polling station results to bounce President John Mahama from office.

If indeed the NPP need only 1,500 polling station results to be nullified in order for Akufo-Addo to be declared president, why did they send their doubtful 11,928 pink sheets to court? The doubtful pink sheets have been reviewed by the KPMG to ascertain the truthfulness of the NPP’s claim concerning the numbers submitted. We may also ask why the NPP even smuggled loads of pink sheets to balloon the numbers at the Registry to over 13,000 if they only needed 1,500 to claim victory.

Following the submission of pink sheets in their affidavits to the Supreme Court, the NDC detected that the NPP’s so-called claim that they submitted 11,842 pink sheets was totally incorrect, that is why they called for the audit of the pink sheets. When the pink sheets at the registry were counted, it was detected that the numbers have strangely increased from the supposed 11,842 to over 13,000.

But when the pink sheets at the offices of the Presiding Judge were counted, the numbers were just around 9,000. Now with the pending exposure of the dubious activities by the NPP concerning the pinks sheets audit, they have started to dismiss the report from KPMG by claiming that the NDC is so obsessed with pink sheets. What the NPP need to tell Ghanaians is why we have that huge difference of about 2,000 pink sheets. Who puffed up the numbers? Why do their numbers not add up? That is the question the NPP should answer Ghanaians.

The NPP in their statement created several bogus and questionable scenarios which sought to claim victory even before the final case is determined by the justices. Even though the NDC should not give credence to the NPP’s contentious arguments which lack merit and substance, it is gratifying to note that the NPP clearly admitted to their own nonsensical points on serial numbers by which they had wanted the SC to nullify 2.6 million valid votes on that score.

Other equally irrelevant issues that the NPP raised were on presiding officers who failed to sign the pink sheets, over voting and voting without biometric verification. But the NPP who appear to be in a state of amnesia have forgotten that the Electoral Commissioner, Dr Afari Gyan, has emphatically asserted that around 97% of the presiding officers signed the pink sheets while 99% of the NPP’s own polling agents also signed the pink sheets to certify the results.

One thing that the NPP has failed to tell Ghanaians is why some presiding officers who have the sole responsibility to fill out the pink sheets failed to sign them. I still hold the strongest view that the inability of some presiding officers to sign the pinks sheets was nothing more than an oversight due to the pressure to send the election results to the collation centres after the results had been declared at the polling stations.

I want to state categorically that a pink sheet is basically made up of two sections; the accounting and declaration sections. But while the NPP seems to have arithmetic problems with the accounting section, the party has not at any stage challenged one certified result at the declaration section.

Today, we have the NPP jumping from one scenario to another which clearly shows their lack of confidence in their own case. The statement issued by the NPP is evidently an act of desperation and vile propaganda to shore up the flagging spirits of the NPP supporters.

The NPP are preparing the grounds for the rejection of the judgement by their supporters if it goes against them. Indeed, this is an act to create confusion and also to put a dent on the integrity of the judgement. The NDC supporters should not sit down and let the NPP have a field day. We have had enough of NPP’s vile propaganda!

I am urging NDC supporters to remain calm, exercise restraint and reject the propaganda piece by the NPP while calling on them to reaffirm their faith in the audit by the KPMG and the judiciary in the discharge of their constitutional obligations.

I, finally, challenge the NPP to stand up and be responsible for their comments concerning the SC trial since the NDC will resist all their obvious attempts to confuse the citizenry of the country by claiming victory when the final determination of the case is still pending.

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