The Supreme Court has ordered that the petitioner and witnesses should file witness’s statements with exhibits if any by the noon of today, Thursday, January 21, 2020.
According to the Court, the witness statement shall be served on the counsel for the respondent by the close of Thursday, January 21.
The respondents and the witnesses if any shall file their witness statement with exhibits if any by the close of the day on Friday “, January 22, 2020.
The first and second respondents shall file submissions on the preliminary objections raised to the petition by noon of January, 22.
The registrar shall ensure service of submission by close of Friday, January 22.
The petitioner shall file any response to the submission of the preliminary objection by Monday, Jan 25.
The registrar shall ensure service of the petitioner’s response by close of Monday, January 25
Ruling on the preliminary objection will be incorporated in the final judgment of the court.
The hearing continues on Tuesday, January, 26.
The Supreme Court also set out five issues for determination in the 2020 presidential election petition filed by the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. John Dramani Mahama.
The five issues include:
Whether or not the petition discloses any cause of action – that is if there are any legal grounds for the petition.
Whether or not the second respondent [Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo] met the Article 63 (3) threshold of the 1992 Constitution – this constitutional provision states that a presidential candidate must obtain more than 50 percent of the total valid votes cast to be declared as President-elect,
Whether or not the 2nd respondent [Nana Akufo-Addo] still met Article 63(3) of the 1992 threshold by the exclusion or inclusion of the Techiman South constituency presidential election results
Other issues are:
Whether or not the declaration by the first respondent (EC) on December 9 of the presidential election conducted on December 7 violated Article 63(3) of the 1992 Constitution,
Whether or not the alleged vote padding and other errors complained of by the petitioner affected the outcome of the presidential election results of 2020.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Kofi Atakora
