We challenged 2020 presidential elections to test NDC’s legal right – Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has stated that he filed the 2020 presidential election petition at the Supreme Court to calm the charged political atmosphere to avoid electoral violence.

The petition, he said, was also to test the legal right of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“The atmosphere was quite charged, a few of our people took to the streets. There was a threat of violence and we didn’t want to go down that path, so it was better to use what the Constitution has given us.

“Once we filed the suit, I noticed that it calmed everybody and of course we went and got 7:0 on every issue that we raised,” he stated.

Mr Mahama stated this while addressing the United States Chapter of the NDC at Bentley University on Sunday [March 27, 2022].

Anomalies

Touching on the conduct of the 2020 elections, Mr Mahama said a number of anomalies occurred in the elections which affected the results.

That, he said, resulted in anger among supporters of the NDC.

“We have all done elections before and at the printing press, all the political parties are supposed to send agents to the printing press. We sit there from the time they start printing until we finish.

“When they finish, we all tally how many ballots they were asked to print. We all look at the numbers and everything and if we are satisfied, then all the agents sign a certificate of completion to say that we are satisfied, that it tallies with the number you were asked to print,” he said.

Mr Mahama said that was what happened at the printing press and all the agents left after the printing of the ballot papers.

Extra ballot papers

However, he said one of the NDC’s agents had to go back for his laptop bag, only for him to see “millions” of ballot papers being printed.

“Some of the people were seen later carrying ballot papers and we reported them to the police. Up till date, nobody has been charged or prosecuted for carrying those extra ballot papers,” he stated.

“These are the things that happened in the elections and so we thought the elections weren’t free and fair and so we went to the Supreme Court. One, to test our legal right and then second, to also calm the atmosphere,” he added.

Mr Mahama said he, therefore, decided to rely on the provisions of the 1992 Constitution by going to the apex court to resolve the matter.

The seven-member panel of the Supreme Court, by a unanimous decision, dismissed the petition on March 4, 2021, on the grounds that it lacked merit, Mr Mahama said.