Former President John Dramani Mahama has, through his legal team filed a for stay of proceedings of the Election Petition at the Supreme Court.
The NDC flagbearer in the 2020 polls wants the Apex Court to halt hearing on the main Election Petition until a determination is made on his request for review of an earlier determination by the Court.
Earlier motion
Mr John Mahama, through his lawyers had filed a motion at the court seeking a review of the Supreme Court’s ruling denying him the opportunity to put some 12 direct questions [interrogatories] to the Electoral Commission, which he argued would have helped narrow down the issues for trial.
The court in dismissing the application said the petitioner failed to convince the court on the relevance of the questions and as such, denied the petitioner the application.
“The court is of the opinion that the crucial issue of relevancy has not been established in this application…We accordingly refuse to grant the application and same is accordingly dismissed,” portions of the ruling by the seven-member panel of Justices hearing the case stated.
Some of the information Mahama’s legal team led by Tsatsu Tsikata was seeking answers to, included, the manner in which the results of the 2020 presidential polls were transmitted and the level of involvement of the National Communications Authority (NCA) in the process.
But in a five page writ, Mr Mahama averred that its application for a review “is based on certain fundamental errors of law that the court made in its ruling, leading to a miscarriage of Justice”.
He further maintained in the writ that for the hearing of the petition to proceed before the Review is heard “would cause an irreparable harm to the conduct of our case since I would have been denied the benefits of a normal pretrial process”.
The stay of proceedings application was filed on Thursday, January 21, 2021, and will be heard on Tuesday, January 26, 2021.
Pending motion
The legal team further reminded the Apex court that a request on the Electoral Commission (EC) to admit to some facts is yet to be determined.
“The request to Admit to Facts is necessary for the finalization of our witness statements. Yet the order made by the court on 20th January, 2021 require us to file our witness statements by noon of 21st January, 2021”, portions of the writ read.
Source: Daily Mail GH
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