General News of Tuesday, 2 April 2013
Source: graphic.com.gh
The Supreme Court has fixed April 16, 2013 to start hearing of the substantive matter in the presidential election results petition.
The court has decided that all witnesses would have to come by affidavit and have consequently asked the parties in the case to file affidavit of witnesses they intend to call.
The petitioners and respondents would however give their evidence orally.
The court came to this conclusion after it resumed sitting Tuesday morning to consider, resolve and adopt issues to be raised by lawyers in the petition contesting the legitimacy of President John Dramani Mahama.
Earlier on in the morning, the court set out two issues for trial in the presidential petition.
They are whether or not there were statutory violations, omissions, irregularities and malpractices in the conduct of the elections held on December 7 and 8, 2012.
The court is also to ascertain whether or not the said violations, omissions, irregularities and malpractices affected the outcome of the results of the elections.
Tueday’s sitting marked the last hurdle to be cleared before the hearing of the substantive petition which is calling for the annulment of 4,670,504 votes cast during the December 2012 presidential polls.
On March 4, 2013, the petitioners filed issues to be set out for trial while the President on March 13, 2013 also filed application for directions.
The 2012 presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his running mate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who lost the elections to President John Dramani Mahama per the Electoral Commission’s declaration and Chairman of the NPP Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey.
They have petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the results of the December 7 presidential elections.
They are requesting the court to annul 4,670,504 of the valid votes cast during the election at 11,916 polling stations where they claim irregularities took place.
The respondents are President John Dramani Mahama, whose election is being challenged, the Electoral Commission of Ghana that organised the elections and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the political party on whose ticket President John Dramani Mahama contested the elections.