Election Petition: Supreme Court Adjourns Hearing To Tuesday January 26

Ghana’s apex court, the Supreme Court today, Wednesday, January 20, 2020 adjourned the hearing of the Election Petition brought before it by former President John Dramani Mahama, to Tuesday, January 26.

The Court on Tuesday, January 19, 2020 adjourned hearing to today after it dismissed application by the Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 election petition. The former president through his lawyers sought to ask the Supreme Court to grant him leave for the Electoral Commission (EC) (1^st respondent) to answer 12 questions regarding the declaration of the presidential election results. The Court dismissed the application before it ended the day’s business and then adjourned hearing to today.

Lawyer for the petitioner on Wednesday told the court at the beginning of hearing that he has come to seek a review of the ruling on their application for interrogatories the previous day.

The lawyer for the former President Mahama during Wednesday, January 19, 2020 hearing filed motion demanding for the originals of the constituency Presidential Election Results Collation Forms (Form9) for all constituencies in Ghana, the originals of the constituency Presidential Election Summary sheets (Form 10) for all constituencies in Ghana and the originals of the Regional Presidential Election Results Collation Forms (Form 11) for all regions in Ghana.

The rest are, the originals of all the Regional Presidential Election Results Summary sheets (Form 12) all regions in Ghana, the originals of the Declaration of the Presidential Results Summary (Form 13) with the last of the six demands being, the records of the alleged update to the purported declaration of the presidential election results on the 9^th December, 2020, the results of the four (4) Constituencies in the Greater Accra Region.

The court ruled that “the crucial issue of relevancy has not been established in this Application” emphasizing the various amendments that have been made to the Court Procedures and Rules, the latest being C.I 99.

The Court further pointed out that it is strictly bound by C.I 99 and therefore will not apply Order 22 of C.I 47 OF 2004 in this circumstance.

Concluding, it stated that it has accordingly, refuse to grant the application and same is accordingly dismissed.

Hearing of the case is expected to continue on January 26, 2021.