Why NDC won’t rush to court – Ayariga explains

The Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has said no amount of pressure will push the National Democratic Congress (NDC) into making a hasty decision to challenge the December polls in court.

Mr Ayariga contends that if the NDC should drag the EC to court over the flawed elections, it would do so strategically, notwithstanding the fact that it has some 19 days to make concrete steps towards a legal fight.

“Why are you hurrying NDC when NDC has 19 more days to decide to go to court? Why are you stampeding the NDC into taking a decision about going to court? People think that they can stampede the NDC into taking a decision about going to court…so what? that makes you more comfortable?” he questioned in an interview with GHOne TV on Thursday.

He argued that the impression that the mistakes of the EC could be corrected by the judiciary is a misguided belief.

Mr Ayariga noted that if the NDC should decide finally to go to court, it would do so strategically.

“…I keep telling people that just the same way that NDC feels that the EC has made mistakes, the judges there are only nine, they can also make a mistake. So the impression that the court is this infallible body before which if you appear every mistake will be corrected, it’s just an option. Not a question of trusting the courts it’s just a question of strategy; the NDC has to decide,” he said.

The NDC presidential candidate, John Mahama has said that his party is conducting a forensic audit into the “flawed” elections indicating the conclusion of the exercise will determine their next line of action.

“We are currently doing a forensic audit of all the constituencies first to establish what happened there and then secondly to re-confirm the figures that we have. Because this case might end up in court, I don’t know, I cannot mention anything for now, but we are doing an audit, and based on that, we’ll take whatever decision we need to take.

“But I think that the incompetence that the EC has shown, it would be useful for us to do a forensic audit of the EC’s own systems and the numbers to come to what the final number of the EC is because as at now I don’t know what number they’re going to gazette,” the former leader said.