The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has conceded that the prolonged presidential election petition currently at the Supreme Court has left 'a cloud of uncertainty' over the Presidency of John Dramani Mahama.

According to NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, there appears to be an effort on the part of the petitioners to “delay the case and have the cloud of uncertainty continue over the presidency of the 1st respondent so as to disable him from pursuing the mandate he has received from the people of Ghana.

This was contained in an affidavit in opposition deposed to by Mr. Asiedu-Nketia when the NDC as 3rd respondent, together with President Mahama (1st respondent) and the Electoral Commission (EC)2nd respondent), tried to block the petitioners from recalling KPMG to reconsider some of the issue it did not capture in its report on the auditing of pink sheets filed by the petitioners with the court.

“For the petitioners who seek, at all cost, to have the court find fault with the conduct of the election after their own representative declared it as the cleanest and most transparent election in the history of the country, and despite a similar conclusion reached by local and international observers, there appears to be an effort to delay the case and have the cloud of uncertainty continue over the presidency of the 1st respondent so as to disable him from pursuing the mandate that he has received from the people of Ghana.”

The petitioners’ application was dismissed by the nine-member panel of justices hearing the proceedings, but the highest court of the land directed that the petitioners were at liberty to prepare a list of 1,545 polling stations which they insisted KPMG failed to consider as part of the report submitted to the court and use it in the cross-examination of Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the EC.

According to Mr. Asiedu-Nketia aka General Mosquito, “it has become evident that the petitioners are seeking to delay the resolution of the petition and leave a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the nation”.

“The continuing distraction that will be caused by the significant delay that would result from the grant of his application would not just be to the prejudice and detriment of the 3rd respondent(NDC), but would be to the prejudice and detriment of the nation at large,” he said.

The NDC General Secretary said since the petition commenced, “the petitioners have sought to evade their responsibility of specifying” the polling stations filed in the process and added that the determination of the 8,675 unique polling station codes from the total count was clearly by the referee.

He averred that “there is nothing incomplete about the derivation from the total number of sheets counted”.

The admission of the NDC General Secretary that the election petition is having a toll on the country goes contrary to the position of President John Mahama who said he is fine with it.

“It doesn’t cause me sleepless nights,” he told Kwaku Sintim-Misa aka KSM on thank God is Friday on Metro TV, adding that it is part of Ghana’s democratic process.