EC, NANA FILE DETAILS AT COURT

Flashback! The petitioners in court

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday February 13, 2013.

The petitioners challenging the validity of the Electoral Commission’s (EC) declaration of John Dramani Mahama as President in the December 7 & 8, 2012 general election have complied with the orders of the Supreme Court to furnish the respondents with ‘further and better particulars’.

The petitioners comprising of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the 2012 elections, his running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the party’s Chairman Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey furnished the court’s registry with the details of the 11,916 polling stations requested by the respondents.

As at 4pm yesterday the NPP legal team was at the Supreme Court Registry finalizing the filing of the order for ‘further and better particulars’ to be directed to 1^st (President Mahama) and 2^nd (EC) respondents .

The EC on the other hand, yesterday, filed the order for interrogatories requesting them to furnish the petitioners with the list of Ghanaian voters registered abroad.

The court’s registry was however, tight-lipped on the detailed explanation given by the EC in respect of the interrogatories.

The separate applications for ‘further and better particulars’ were filed by the respondents, President Mahama and the EC seeking to ask the court to order Nana Akufo-Addo and others to provide details including names and codes of the polling stations where the petitioners are alleging irregularities and malpractice.

The petitioners on the other hand filed an application for ‘interrogatories’ to get the EC to furnish them with particulars of Ghanaians serving abroad including foreign service officials, students on government scholarships abroad, Ghanaians working in international organizations and security service personnel returning on duties and the mode of registration.

Another application filed by the petitioners to get the court to order the EC for ‘production and inspection of documents’ in relation to the Results Collation Forms from 275 Constituencies and Declaration Forms Pink Sheets from 26,002 polling stations was however denied by the court.

The court had ordered the petitioners and the EC to produce the documents within seven days and yesterday was the deadline.

Failure to comply with the court’s order could have resulted in contempt of the court.

Nana Akufo-Addo and others finally filed an application for leave to amend the original petition which was duly granted on February 7.

The amended petition therefore allowed the petitioners to add 7,107 polling stations to the original 4,709 polling stations filed, bringing the total number polling stations to 11,916.

The court in dismissing the petitioners application for interrogatories requesting the EC to furnish them with Results Collation Forms from 275 Constituencies and Declaration Forms Pink Sheets from 26,002 polling, said the petitioner’s party, the NPP were given copies of all the documents on request.

The unanimous decision, legal experts believe, is a subtle validation of the petitioner’s request.