Supreme Court adjourns election case to Wednesday

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Created on Tuesday, 23 April 2013 00:00

Supreme Court adjourns election case to Wednesday

23 April 2013

The Supreme Court sitting in Accra on Tuesday adjourned to Wednesday morning, hearing on the election petition case currently before the Court.

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Mr Tony Lithur, counsel for President John Dramani Mahama, continued his cross examination of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia when the Court reconvened Tuesday morning, the fifth day into proceedings.

Dr Bawumia, running mate to Nana Akuffo-Addo, flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 general election, is Second Petitioner in the case.

Before the Court adjourned on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Lithur who had been cross examining Dr Bawumia, had based his interrogation mainly on the allegation of over-voting which constitutes one of the grounds on which the petitioners are seeking an annulment of the December 2012 election results.

Speaking to newsmen on the court premises after the case had been adjourned, Mr Victor Adawudu, member of the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) legal team, indicated that the cross examination of the witness had began “to expose some loop-holes” in the petitioners’ case.

He alluded to what he referred to as inconsistencies in the answers provided by Dr Bawumia during the cross examination, adding that “the number of polling stations has kept changing”.

In her comments to newsmen on the issue of conducting an audit of the ‘pink sheets’ that kept coming up during the proceedings, Ms Gloria Akuffo, member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) legal team, indicated that it was important since those sheets constituted the primary evidence of the petitioners’ case.

There was, however, the need to “go beyond the mere counting of the pink sheets to ascertaining whether or not the numbers alleged by the petitioners are correct”, she added.

Three leading members of the NPP, namely Nana Akufo-Addo, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, NPP Chairman are praying the Court to nullify the Electoral Commission’s declaration of President John Mahama as the winner of the December 2012 election, citing statutory violations and irregularities.

President John Dramani Mahama, the Electoral Commission and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are the respondents in the case.

Hearing continues on Wednesday.

Source: GNA