General News of Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Source: radioxyzonline.com
The 2012 flag bearer of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said he trusts “the live broadcast of the election petition case will bring understanding and greater acceptance of the Supreme Court’s work and decisions”.
The substantive case, which starts today will be opened to the TV lenses and Radio Microphones of the Media.
Chief Justice Georgina Wood granted that concession on Monday April 15.
State broadcaster GTV has been granted access to the court to cover proceedings.
Other media houses are expected to tap from the state broadcaster’s feed.
The live broadcast of the case follows an advocacy by the Executive Director of Policy Think Tank Danquah Institute to that effect.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko insisted the NPP’s flag bearer’s petition alongside two others, was too significant a case to be heard on the blind side of the media.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, together with his 2012 running Mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and his party’s National Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey is in court challenging the validity of the election results as declared by the country’s electoral commission after the December 7 and 8 general elections.
The petitioners argue that the elections were fraught with unpardonable flaws which must not be left uninvestigated.
They accuse the incumbent party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) of conspiring with the Electoral Commission (EC) to rig the elections for President John Mahama.
They are therefore praying the court to set aside and nullify the EC’s results which declared President Mahama as winner of the presidential poll.
They want the court to annul 4,670,504 of the valid votes cast during the election at 11,916 polling stations where they claim a lot of anomalies occurred.
The court whittled the case down to two issues.
They included whether or not there were statutory violations, irregularities, omissions and malpractices in the 2012 general elections and if same impacted the final results.
The first and third respondents (President Mahama and the National Democratic Congress) have filed affidavits of witnesses they intend to call.
As the hearing of the substantive case begins today, Nana Akufo-Addo wrote on his twitter handle that: “I look forward to a speedy resolution of the case and the deepening of our democratic process”.
He said: “I believe in the legal process and I pray for courage and a clear mind for all the judges and lawyers and officers of the court”.