The election petition has been adjourned to tomorrow [Tuesday] for a ruling on the application by the petitioner seeking leave to re-open his case.
The National Democratic Congress flagbearer and petitioner in the case, John Mahama, sought to convince the Supreme Court panel to allow him to re-open his case.
But in court today, lawyers for the Electoral Commission (EC) and President Akufo-Addo raised several counter-arguments explaining why the petitioner should be stopped to have his case reopened.
Akoto Ampaw, who is counsel for President Akufo-Addo, pointed out that the leave the petitioner is seeking is against legal processes for proof of burden.
“This is an attempt to call for further evidence, and he must be held to the rule on the condition to be met in order to adduce further evidence,” he insisted.
The lawyer for the EC, Justin Amenuvor, also believes the application being sought by Mr. Mahama should be denied because it is “an abuse of the court processes” since reopening of cases to subpoena a witness has never happened in a court.
But Mr. Mahama’s lawyer, Tsatsu Tsikata argued that he wanted to call Jean Mensa, the EC Chairperson, as an “adverse witness”.
He again stressed that not being granted the opportunity to have EC Chair cross-examined will be an affront to the dispute at hand.
In the main case, Mr. Mahama’s argument is that neither he nor President Akufo-Addo attained a clear majority during the 2020 polls because of the omission of the Techiman South constituency from the declaration.
He is asking the Supreme Court to order a re-run of the presidential election for him and the incumbent.
Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews
