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Pathetic NPP petitioners are clutching at
straw
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Friday, July 12, 2013
Let me begin my opinion piece with this aspect of proceedings at
Wednesday’s sitting of the Supreme Court:
“Addison is belled out at this stage (meaning that he had
exhausted the 30 minutes allotted to him for his oral
submission).
“Judge Atuguba adjourns hearing to August 14. The judges will
ask clarifications from the parties and will return 15 days
later with a verdict.”
Many issues cropped up in the day’s oral submissions. The oral
submissions given by the various counsel produced deep insights
to help me understand all the more why the NPP’s petition is
nothing but a huge sand castle. I expect that sand castle to
tumble down sooner than later. But this aspect of Addison’s
submission is nerve-wracking and must be discussed as such.
In all honesty, I wasn’t in the least tuned up to hear from
Philip Addison (counsel for the NPP petitioners) what he told
the Supreme Court:
“The difference between votes for the first respondent and first
petitioner (Akufo-Addo) was 325,863. This result should be taken
in comparison to the outcome of votes the NPP and NDC
presidential and Parliamentary candidates.
“The first Petitioner had 5,248,898 votes and his Parliamentary
candidates had 5,248,882 which showed a difference of 16.
“For the first Respondent he garnered 5,574,761 as against
5,127, 641 by all his parliamentary candidates which showed a
difference of 447,120. What accounted for this difference? It
cannot be skirt and blouse phenomenon because the NDC are in the
majority. The majority in Parliament secured 121,221 votes less
than the minority. This is curious and undermines the one man
one vote spelt out in the constitution.”
I will dive into this submission by Addison to prove the bad
faith with which these NPP people have been acting all this
while. Many elements constituting this sand castle are known,
especially those related to the anomalies, miscategorizations,
mislabellings, duplications, triplications, quadruplications,
and what-have-you!!
Critical observation of proceedings at the Supreme Court have
revealed the machinations, duplicity, and dogged mischief with
which the pink sheet-based petition was couched, in the first
place, and pursued with some shameless tenacity all this while.
But nothing has shocked me more than what counsel for the
petitioners (Philip Addison) sought to do at today’s sitting of
the Court when he made his oral presentation to conclude the
arguments on why the petitioners challenged Election 2012 and
why the Court should annul millions of votes to put Akufo-Addo
at the Presidency.
Addison joined the petitioners in bending back to swallow the
NPP’s own vomit. Not strange because it is characteristic of
“political dogs” to go back for their own vomit in a vain effort
to hang on to life. As my friend insists, desperate times
provoke desperate acts!!
My good friends, do you see why I haven’t ceased scathingly
criticizing these NPP people? They have acted all along in very
bad faith and deserve nothing but concentrated contempt.
When they launched their campaign of acrimony against the EC and
President Mahama/NDC, some of us wondered why they didn’t
include the Parliamentary aspects of the general elections in
their petition. We accused them of acting in a very bad faith;
but they either remained silent on the issue or used porous
arguments to attempt fending off criticism.
One argument was that the Parliamentary elections were different
aspects to be taken up individual NPP Parliamentary Candidates
who felt cheated. Indeed, some rushed to court but nothing has
issued forth so far to prove that they have any case to be
heard. A mere window-dressing for the challenge to the
Presidential elections?
But in gathering evidence to pursue their self-serving agenda,
the petitioners mixed pink sheets of Parliamentary elections
with those for the Presidential one. It was only through
vigilance that Tsatsu Tsikata and the other legal teams of the
respondents exposed their mischief and duplicity.
Still bent on contaminating matters, they found ways to inflate
the quantum of pink sheet exhibits and other documents that they
had Photoshopped. The KPMG’s vigilance and professionalism
exposed them in this area too. As we could see from Addison’s
struggles to plaster reality with falsehood in his oral
submission, this exposure has really hurt the petitioners.
Now, what do we see? The NPP petitioners have turned full circle
to rely on material from the Parliamentary elections in a vain
attempt to beef up their case concerning the Presidential
elections. That was what Addison said (as quoted above).
So, now, the NPP petitioners know that they can marry the
Parliamentary elections to the Presidential one? And what
puerile arguments? And he is emphatic that “it cannot be
skirt-and-blouse phenomenon”?
Had the petitioners done any serious checks to know the pattern
of voting among their own so-called supporters, they would have
been told that skirt-and-blouse voting was an integral part of
what took place on December 7 and 8. Of course, given the fact
that Parliamentary Candidates of the NPP had individual
attributes that put them streets ahead of Akufo-Addo, why won’t
the voters go for them and despise their Presidential Candidate?
Some of us heard a lot about this pattern of voting and won’t be
surprised at the turn of events. But for Addison to cite this
instance clearly confirms the high degree of paralyzing
desperation and debilitating frustration that has hit the
petitioners.
Who says that a voter who endorsed a Presidential candidate will
automatically go for the Parliamentary candidate of the party of
choice? Indeed, bringing this aspect into this final rhetorical
manouevre is counter-productive and will hurt the petitioners’
credibility all the more. It is a clear demonstration of
low-brow political thinking. These NPP people are really
suffering because they are imprisoned in their own minds!!
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
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