Ayikoi Otoo hints of Election 2012 run-off

Former Attorney General and Minister for Justice Ayikoi Otoo has urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) hierarchy to put stringent measures in place to ensure that the party is not cheated again if the election goes to a run-off.

One of the measures he has proposed to the party is a video recording of the counting process at the various polling stations and collation centers in every constituency.

"The party should do a video recording of the counting process at the various polling stations. This will make it difficult for anybody to add or subtract figures from the actual votes the party will get," he said.

In an interview with Daily Guide newspaper, Ayikoi Otoo said, "each constituency executive must be able to provide a video camera to capture the counting of votes at polling stations,” saying, “that is what I did when I was an agent for Nana Addo during the second round of the 2008 elections at the Krowor Constituency."

He said the NPP was well prepared for a second round of the presidential election if the Supreme Court ruled that the EC should organize a run-off.

Ayikoi Otoo said the party would make sure that none of its polling agents was compromised during the second round of the election.

"We have trained many polling agents, so if we see that some of tile agents have been bribed then we replace them."

He asked NPP faithful to calm down as the party prepared to file the case in court. "This is not a criminal case where you hurry to file in court for investigations to begin. In civil case, you prepare your documents well before you go to court.

"We will surely go to court within the given 21-day period so supporters must be patient. We know that they expect us to go to court immediately but we need to gather our evidence well before presenting in court. There is no need to rush," Ayikoi Otoo added.

He assured supporters that when John Mahama is sworn in as president, the swearing-in will not affect court proceeding in anyway.

Ayikoi Otoo said, "if the NPP wins the case in court, all actions undertaken by President Mahama would be invalidated, including his swearing in," according Article 64 of the 1992 Constitution. The article states that, "a declaration by the Supreme Court that the election of the President is not valid shall be without prejudice to anything done by the President before the declaration."

The NPP has challenged the results of the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections that saw President Mahama emerge as winner.

The party is expected to present its gathered evidence to the Supreme Court by the end of this month.

The respondent, the Electoral Commission, is expected to respond to the suit within 10 days (by January 10, 2013). Thereafter, the Supreme Court is expected to sit on the petition within ten days (latest by January 15, 2013).

From: Daily Guide