Election Petition: Supreme Court sits next on April 2

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Election Petition: Supreme Court sits next on April 2

The Supreme Court will resume sitting on April 2, 2013 to resolve, consider and adopt issues to be raised by lawyers in the petition challenging the legitimacy of President John Mahama.

Lawyers for the parties met on Monday March 19, 2013 following a directive from the court advising them to meet, deliberate and arrive at issues to be set out for trial and determination, but that agreement could not be reached by the parties.

Following the communication of the deadlock to the registrar of the Supreme Court on March 19, 2013, the registrar in a letter dated March 25, 2013 fixed April 2, 2013 as the date for the court’s next hearing.

Under the procedures of the court, the legal teams for the petitioners and the respondents are expected to officially announce the areas they agreed on and those they did not.

The court will then consider the issues disagreed upon and arrive at a solution before beginning hearing of the substantive case.

Following that, a memorandum of issues would then be set out for trial. Key among the memorandum of issues to be set out for trial are whether or not persons were allowed to vote without biometric verification and whether or not votes cast in 11,916 polling stations should be annulled by the court.

On March 4, 2013, the petitioners filed issues to be set out for trial, while the President on March 13 also filed an application for directions.

Both sides agreed on a request for the court to determine whether or not persons were allowed to vote without biometric verification among others.

However, the President prayed the court to allow petitioners in the case to adopt audio-visual aids in the presentation of evidence.

On the petitioners’ prayer that parties in the case be made to exchange documents to be relied on seven days before the trial, the President is pleading with the court to reject that request.

President Mahama is also praying the court to decline the petitioners’ suggestion that seven days before the trial, all parties must be made to present a list of witnesses and a brief summary of the nature and relevance of each witness’ testimony to enable the court to determine its probative value.

Agreed issues on record

President Mahama has however not opposed the petitioners’ suggestion that the hearing should take two months.

The parties are also not opposed to the application on whether or not persons were allowed to vote without biometric verification.

The issues that are likely to be set out for trial include: whether or not persons were allowed to vote without undergoing prior biometric verification and whether or not votes cast exceeded the ballot papers issued to voters at polling stations during the polls in some polling stations.

The court will also decide whether or not to annul votes cast in 11,916 polling stations.

The EC has said the petitioners failed to fully comply with the court’s orders to supply it with further better particulars.

The stalemate

The court, on March 14 2013, gave the legal teams in the case seven days to sit and narrow issues for determination and indicate the areas they did not agree on for the court to resolve.

However barely seven days after the court’s directive, lawyers for the petitioners and the respondents met, deliberated and hit a deadlock.

Following the stand-off, the legal team for the petitioners on March 19, 2013 wrote to the registrar of the Supreme Court and indicated that they and lawyers for the respondents met and agreed on relatively few issues.

They officially wrote to the registrar to indicate the outcome of the meeting and prayed the registry to set a short date to enable the parties to appear before the court for resolution.

The letter, dated March 19 2013, and signed by Mr Akoto Ampaw of Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co. and addressed the registrar of the Supreme Court stated: “This is formally to notify the Supreme Court that following the order of the court, counsel for all the parties met in an attempt at reaching an agreement on the memorandum of issues as set out in the application for direction and further directions.”

“We however regret to inform the court that with the exception of the relatively few numbers of issues agreed on, we were unable to reach a substantial agreement on the issues.

“We would accordingly be grateful if a short date could be fixed for the parties to appear in court to take directions as to the issues and the mode of trial in order to expedite trial fo the petition,” it said, adding: “We will at the hearing give notice to the court with respect to the issues we managed to reach agreement on.”

The letter was copied to the lawyer for President Mahama, Mr Tony Lithur; counsel for the EC and that of the NDC, Mr Samuel Codjoe.

Lawyers for the parties in the case, as a sign of respect to the court, have declined to disclose the issues they agreed on and those they disagreed on.

The petitioners, Nana Akufo-Addo; Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, filled the petition at the highest court praying it to annul votes cast in 11,916 polling stations due to what they termed “gross and widespread irregularities”.

They had, in a December 28, 2012 petition, called for the annulment of votes cast in 4,709 polling stations but amended their petition on February 9, 2013 after the court had granted them permission to do so and cited 11,916 polling stations as the total number of polling stations where alleged irregularities were recorded.

The three had initially called for the cancellation of 1,342,845 valid votes cast during the election at 4,709 polling stations due to the alleged irregularities recorded during the elections but are not urging the Supreme Court to pronounce an additional 3,327,659 valid votes cast as invalid.

The Supreme Court, on February 7, 2013, granted the petitioners’ prayer of amendment and accordingly allowed the amendment.

President Mahama who is the first respondent, the EC and the NDC – second and third respondents respectively, have filed their requests.

They have all refuted the petitioners’ allegations on the grounds that President Mahama won the elections legitimately in the full glare of the media, local and international observers.

The NDC applied to join the petition on December 31, 2012 and was duly granted permission by a 6-3 majority decision of the Supreme Court on January 22, 2013.

On March 14 2013, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed applications filed by 327 people who sought to join the petition. The nine-member panel held that the presence of the 327 applicants “was neither necessary nor convenient”, adding that they are being allowed to join would defeat the purpose of the Supreme Court (Amendment) Rules 2012 (C.1.74) which calls for an expeditious trial in an electoral petition.

Per the court’s ruling, nobody can join the petition.

The matter is being head by the court, presided over by Justice William Atuguba, with Justice Julius Ansah, Justice Sophia Adinyira, Justice Rose Owusu, Justice Jones Dotse, Justice Annim Yeboah, Justice P. Baffoe-Bonnie, Justice N.S Gbadegbe and Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo as members.

From: Ghana | Daily Graphic