Jean Mensa was just in a haste to declare her favourite candidate Prez – Ayine

The former Deputy Justice Minister under the previous John Mahama administration has said the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensa was merely in a haste to declare her favourite candidate president of the republic in the recent elections.

“It’s very obvious from the things that have happened and in that indecent haste she committed grievous errors of law that do not comply with the fundamental dictates of the constitution,” Dr. Dominic Ayine told Lantam Papanko in an interview on GHOne TV Thursday.

He contended that that is part of the reason why the party is invoking Article 296 in its petition to seek redress of the errors by the EC that is consequential in law.

“Article 63(3) of the constitution, does it leave it open-ended for any Returning Officer to make a guestimate or estimate of who has won the election? he queried, adding, it requires mathematical exactitude.

Mr Mahama who was flagbearer of the NDC in the recent election filed a petition at the Supreme Court on Wednesday to formally challenge the results which saw President Akufo-Addo re-elected.

Mr. Mahama in an address Wednesday night said: ”Some people have asked me what I hope to gain by challenging the results of this election.

“Let me tell you: I want, perhaps, the very same thing that my opponent wanted when in 2012 he challenged the results of that election; I want the removal of doubt. I want for all of us to know that our elections should be free, fair, and safe—and that we do not have to settle for a process that leaves us confused, and with more questions than answers. I want a Ghana where institutions of state can be held to account”.

He stressed: “Where we can stand on principle and demand transparency without the risk of losing our lives. When people lose their lives—as seven people did—in the course of our elections, we are moving backward not forward; we are unraveling the very fabric of our democracy; we are risking the loss of three decades worth of progress.

“When today we see armed military and militia in our collation centres and election outcomes declared at the point of a gun, for us who have witnessed our country’s journey through all its post-independence travails, we wonder if we have truly exorcised the ghosts of our tortuous past. We must continue to be a nation in which our young citizens have faith in our institutions, trust the rule of law, and rely on the presence of peace because there is justice”.