Supreme Court to adhere strictly to 42-day timeline 

To ensure adherence to the 42-day timeline to determine the election petition, the Supreme Court has decided to settle on five issues raised at the pre-trial.

The seven-member panel, headed by Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah, will decide on, first and foremost, whether or not the petitioner displayed any reasonable cause of action.

Similarly, the panel will decide whether or not, per the data available, if any of the presidential candidates obtained more than 50 percent of the votes cast, as mandated by Article 63 (3) of the 1992 Constitution.

In the same vein, the justices will determine whether or not the second respondent obtained more than 50% of the votes cast by the exclusion or inclusion of the Techiman South Constituency results, and whether or not the declaration was in violation of the Constitution.

Whether or not the declaration by the 1st respondent on December 9, 2020 of the Presidential election result conducted on the December 7, 2020 was an invalidation of Article 63(3) of the 1992 Constitution.

Justices Yaw Appau, Samuel K. Marfu-Sau, Nene Abayaateye Ofoe Amegatcher, Prof. Nii Ashie Kotey, Mariama Owusu and Gertrude Torkornoo will also take a decision on whether or not the alleged vote padding and other errors complained of by the petitioner affected the outcome of the presidential election result of 2020.

The Chief Justice, after reading this decision yesterday, stated that by virtue of the powers vested in this court, under rule 5, sub-rule 4, and under the CI 99, will apply the strict timeline set to hear the election petition.

The court, therefore, directed former President John Dramani Mahama and witnesses to file their statements with all necessary exhibits, if any, by noon of Thursday, January 21, 2021.

The court expects same to be served on the counsel of the respondents – Electoral Commission and President Akufo-Addo – that very day, while the respondents and their witnesses (if any) should also file their witness statements, together with the exhibits, by the close of the Friday, January 22, 2021.

The court, again, ordered the first and second respondents to file their submissions to the preliminary objections to the petition by noon on Friday, January 22, 2021, adding, “The petitioners shall file any response to the submission of the preliminary objection noon on Monday, January 25, 2021.” The ruling on the preliminary objection will be determined on Tuesday January 26, 2020.

Background

Former President Mahama is in court to challenge the declaration made by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa, stating that the presidential election held on December 7, 2020 was in breach of Article 63(3) of the 1992 Constitution.

Secondly, that on the declaration made by the Chairperson on the presidential election, no candidate satisfied the requirement of Article 63(3) of the 1992 Constitution to be declared President-elect.

Per the petition pending before the court, by the purported result declared by the Chairperson, the total number of valid votes cast was 13,434,574, representing 79% of the total registered voters, where the 2nd Respondent obtained 6,730,413 votes (51.595%), while Mr Mahama had 6,214,389 votes (47.366%), was not a true reflection of what happened.

The petition further adds if all the percentages allocated to the 12 candidates are put together as purportedly declared by Mrs Mensa on December 9, they will yield a total of 100.3%.

It also has an issue with the statement made by the Chairperson that the Techiman South Constituency, with a voter population of 128,018, was excluded from the December 9, 2020 declaration, and was even more particular with the declaration that even if the entire results are added to that of the petitioner’s, it cannot change the outcome.

It also argued that if all the votes of Techiman South Constituency were added to petitioner’s votes, the 2nd Respondent’s votes would remain the same at 6,730,413(49.625%), while the votes of the petitioner would increase to 6,342,907 (46.768%).

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