Election petition: 3 key takeaways from Monday’s hearing ahead of Supreme Court’s ruling today
- John Mahama has rejected the outcome of the 2020 presidential elections
- For him, there was no winner, and that the results were rigged for President Nana Akufo-Addo
- He has there petitioned the Supreme Court to annul the results and order for a rerun between him and the president
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Former President John Mahama, the flagbearer of the NDC, filed a petition before the Supreme Court to challenge the outcome of the 2020 presidential race.
He wants a rerun to be conducted between him and President Akufo-Addo.
He argued that there was no winner in the election.
Source: Facebook
Akufo-Addo defeated him in the election to secure another four-year term; collecting 51.302% of the votes cast against the latter’s 47.359%.
The votes difference between the two candidates stood at 517, 231, representing a four percentage point, one of the highest since 1996.
Lawyers for the first and second respondents, Justin Amenuvor and Akoto Ampaw, told the court that they were not calling any witnesses following the petitioner’s closure of his case.
According to them, the petitioner had not satisfied “the burden of proof” thus their decision not to call any witness.
Tsatsu Tsikata, the lawyer for the petitioner objected to their moves by the court which held that a party cannot be compelled to mount the witness box.
Tsikata then made an application to the court to reopen the former president’s case and subpoena the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa.
YEN.com.gh in this article presents 3 key happenings in court on Monday, February 15, 2021, ahead of the court’s ruling later today.
Honouring God: Tsatsu Tsikata told the court that Jean Mensa’s testimony would honour the God she gave glory to before declaring the 2020 presidential election results.
He said the truth of what transpired in the EC’s Strong Room was essential to the case, thus the need for Mensa to testify.
“My Lords, the chairperson [Jean Mensah] should come out to testify and to honour the God she claimed she serves,” he stated.
Failing the petitioner: Akoto Ampaw retorted that had Tsikata and his team “thought through fully” the case of the respondents, they would have anticipated the strategy not to call witnesses.
“Right from the beginning of filing our answers, we had served notice to them and the court that we think that they didn’t have any case for us to be even heard,” Ampaw stated.
“So, they must have had notice that it was likely if they fail to lead sufficient evidence that we would not adduce any evidence and consistent with our original and primary position, we would ask the court to determine the matter on the evidence before it,” he added.
Please change your wig: On a lighter note, the court advised the lead counsel for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Akoto Ampaw, to please change his wig.
The admonition was made by the Chief Justice, Justice Anin-Yeboah and it threw the court into wild laughter.
“Mr. Akoto Ampaw,” he said, “I think you have to change your wig, it has lost its identity as a wig.”
Ampaw then removed the wig from his head, stared at it admiringly, and donned it back.
Hilarious!
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Source: YEN.com.gh
