General News of Friday, 16 August 2013

Source: joyonline

Jake expresses confidence in SC Judges

National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, says he is confident the Supreme Court Judges will uphold the petitioners' demands when they give their verdict on August 29.

In his first public comments since filing a petition challenging the declaration of John Mahama as President in last year's polls, Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said, along with the two other petitioners, they have proved that "one, there were infractions [in the 2012 presidential elections] and two that those infractions had an effect on the election results".

He, however, admitted that the election petition process was a daunting task.

Recalling the days leading to the filing of their affidavits, he said "I was tensed before we filed, because...we had 21 days within which to gather the evidence; and that was a tensed time, but once we had filed...what I consider to be overwhelming weight of evidence, then I was relaxed".

He is confident that together with the first and second petitioners, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the presidential candidate and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the vice presidential candidate in that election respectively, they have proved that there was widespread irregularities in the 2012 presidential polls.

"So now let's see what the Court will say", he said.

The petitioners are challenging the declaration of President Mahama by the Electoral Commission as the winner in the 2012 presidential election.

After 8 months of a grueling legal battle by the petitioners and the first, second and third respondents, President John Mahama, the Electoral Commission and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), respectively, the Court on Wednesday scheduled August 29 to deliver its judgment in the landmark case.