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Tsatsu’s pink sheet strengthens case that EC did not organize a credible election- Ayenini
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- Parent Category: Justice & Security
- Category: Law Commentaries
- Created on Tuesday, 07 May 2013 00:00
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Tsatsu’s pink sheet strengthens case that EC did not organize a credible election- Ayenini
A legal practitioner has waded into the controversy in which judges presiding over the Presidential Election Petition over ruled an objection which sought to prevent the second petitioner under cross examination from identifying a document which has not been tendered before the court.Samson Lardy Ayenini says the judges’ decision to allow Tsatsu Tsikata to ask questions on a pink sheet that was not before the court and which contained allegations of irregularity may strengthen the case that the EC did not organize a credible election.
He made the comment on Joy FM’s News night programme Tuesday.
Day 12 of the ongoing Election Petition was a lot lively and was capped with a ruling on an objection which a member of the NDC legal team Nana Ato Dadzie has described as “landmark.”
During cross-examination, Bawumia told the court that the third respondent can well call for an annulment of results on a particular pink sheet if he can prove that there were irregularities at that polling station. Tsikata then brought out a pink sheet and asked the witness to identify the document and confirm if there was a case over voting.
Philip Addison then objected to the document arguing that the document on which Tsikata was trying to cross-examine the witness on has not been tendered by the witness neither was it even tendered in affidavits by the respondents.
He said except the respondents want to be co-petitioners, there was no point in allowing that document to be tendered.
Addison added that if it was the case that the respondent wanted to use the document as part of their case, then they ought to have pleaded it in their affidavits.
He would not have Tsikata spring surprises on them.
The judges who requested for five minutes to come up with a judgment on the matter took close to half an hour to arrive at a ruling which conclusively over ruled the objection by the petitioners and with a caveat to the respondent to ask questions of irregularities that have already been led in evidence.
It must have been a difficult decision for the judges to take, Samson Lardy Ayenini said, given the time it took for that verdict.
“On the question of the opening of the flood gates, I share the view of a respected senior that what that would have done is that if you allow further evidence of malpractices or irregularities to be produced then it will go further to show that the EC did not perform its job properly in giving us a credible election,” he noted.
On the question of allowing exhibits that had not been tendered before the court, Lardy disagreed with Addison that only exhibits before the court can be tendered.
From: Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
