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Lead counsel for the petitioners in the election petition case, Mr Philip Addison, in his oral address to the Supreme Court has established that �tolerating cheat and fraud in elections could imply that holding elections itself is not desirable or necessary.� �Allowing candidates license to cheat� render the election frivolous.� Supporting his argument, lawyer Addison added: �Double counting or votes can result in over voting and there was stock of the petitioners not providing stock of evidence of people engaged in over voting. How that could be done? I don�t know. Voting is in secret, it is only after wards when the votes are counted that it is seen as an over vote.� �The signing of forms by the presiding officer apart from being a mandatory constitutional duty is also to validate and authenticate the results of the election.Therefore failure to do so will render subsequent communication of the results to the presiding officer void.� According to him, the current situation had presented a major challenge to the court since it was supposed to determine one party as valid and the other invalid. �This court is being asked to perform a judicial function that no other court has been able to do so far in Africa. In Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, and Nigeria etc presidential election petitions have failed in a few instances because of technicalities and numbers to effect the outcome.� In his opinion, with the facts presented in court throughout the duration of the case, the need for legitimacy to be made to the genuine winner of the recently held presidential elections, was crucial. �If the principles enshrined in our laws especially the constitution are properly observed during a free and fair democratic election, losing candidates and their supporters will surely be satisfied and therefore allow the country to develop peacefully but if a presidential election is won through fraud cheating, and through the flouting of the law and constitution, dissatisfied members and their followers might create instability and disaffection among the population.� The petitioners � Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; his running mate, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, and the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey � have alleged gross and widespread irregularities at 10,119 polling stations across the country. They have argued that Nana Akufo-Addo should have been validly declared President on December 9, 2012 because he obtained 4,0157,12 valid votes, representing 56.85 per cent, while President Mahama benefitted from 2,622,551 votes, representing 41.79 per cent of the valid votes cast in the 2012 election.