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Friday January 29, 2021 Policy
Source: Starr FM
2021-01-29
NDC General Secretary, Asiedu Nketia
Everything is ready for the Supreme Court to begin the hearing of the 2020 presidential election after considering all the motions pending before the court.
NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who is one of two witnesses for former President John Mahama, is expected to take the witness stand today to testify against the EC.
The Apex Tribunal, at Thursday’s hearing, rejected the petitioner’s request for the court to reconsider its decision rejecting his request to put 12 questions to the Election Commission (EC).
The petitioner, former President John Mahama and the NDC candidate wanted to ask the EC among other questions how it communicated the results of the 2020 elections and whether or not the National Communications Authority (NCA) had played a role in transmission of results, but authorization refused by court.
The petitioner’s lead lawyer, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, argued that once in 2013 the election petition saw the admission of interrogations, the court could, as a matter of priority, authorize the same.
He said interrogations, if granted, will be important for their witness statement and also to help the court expedite action at the hearing.
The respondents successively opposed the granting of the review.
The nine-member Supreme Court Review Panel, chaired by the Chief Justice, unanimously rejected the rejection that the petitioner had failed to convince the court to overturn its earlier decision.
Chief Justice’s decision on review
In addition to the request for review and a request to file an additional reason for the petitioner’s request for review which was rejected, two other requests for a stay of proceedings and a shortening of time were previously struck out as withdrawn.
The court subsequently ordered the petitioner to put his first witness in the box tomorrow for the hearing to begin.
After the court hearing, a former attorney general in the NDC administration, Marietta Brew Appiah Oppong, speaking to the media, said the petitioner was not treated fairly by the bench.
She said all decisions on the petitions sought were brief and insufficient reasons were not provided for these decisions.
She said that on the same grounds that President Akufo-Addo was allowed to file interrogations, Mahama was refused.
Frank Davis, one of the President’s attorneys, the 2nd petition defendant, in his response to the Marrietta Brew allegations, said they should understand that the legal grounds for the 2013 petition were different from those that are currently in contention.
He also urged the petitioner’s lawyers to resort to short arguments, as long submissions will not win them in court, but the merits of their case.
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