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All Set for Case Next Week ...Mahama, EC, NDC served with affidavits, evidence
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All Set for Case Next Week ...Mahama, EC, NDC served with affidavits, evidence
The New Statesman can confirm that John Mahama, the Electoral Commission, and the National Democratic Congress, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents respectively, in the Supreme Court case challenging the results of the 2012, were yesterday fully served with affidavits and evidence of the petitioners, which were filed on Sunday.
The New Statesman is reliably informed that the EC was served yesterday at 9:30am.
With the respondents having received copies of the petitioners’ affidavits, it is expected that by Monday, April 15, they would have filed their affidavits in time for the commencement of the case on Tuesday, April 16.Sources close to the petitioners have told the New Statesman that with every impediment in the way of the speedy resolution of the trial, which has the determination of the Presidency at heart now removed, it is expected that the case will be concluded as quickly as possible.
It is recalled that on the April 2, 2013, the court held that in order to ensure an expeditious determination of the case, the mode of trial would involve evidence in the form of sworn affidavits from potential witnesses in the case.
The court, accordingly, directed the petitioners to file the affidavits of witnesses on or before April 7, 2013, which they did, while the respondents in the case were directed to file their written affidavits within five days from the service of petitioners’ affidavits on them.
However, the EC, in a motion on notice filed on its behalf by its solicitors, Lynes Quashie-Idun and Co, and backed by the other respondents, urged the court to vary its order directing the respondents to file their written affidavits within five days from the service of petitioners’ affidavits on them.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court dismissed the application by the EC. According to the court, having regard to the case before it, the resort to the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, CI 47, was misconceived and described the application as lacking merit.
With the court making it clear that apart from evidence from the six named parties to the suit all other evidence must be by affidavit, the petitioners and their lawyers, Sunday, filed hundreds of thousands of documents making up their affidavits and evidence.
The filing of the documents was so because the petitioners are alleging violations, omissions, malpractices and irregularities in some 11,916 polling stations. The case of the petitioners, namely Nana Akufo-Addo, Mahamudu Bawumia and Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, is based on the very documents the Chairman of the Electoral Commission relied on to declare John Mahama the winner of the December 2012 presidential contest.
Although there are 11,916 polling stations, there are multiple instances of infractions covering 26 grounds in the petition. This is what accounted for the hundreds of thousands of copies filed on Sunday.
Source: thestatesmanonline.com
