ELECTION PETITION: Supreme Court Strikes out Mahama’s Request for Live Telecast

-But Okays Live Broadcast of Proceedings

On day one of the Presidential election petition filed by former President John Dramani Mahama, the seven-member panel hearing the case struck out a Motion filed by Mr. Mahama’s team requesting for a live telecast of the election petition.

The panel presided over by Chief Justice Kwesi Anin Yeboah, said the request was moot. Apparently, this is because the court had already decided the petition was going to be broadcast live. 

Meanwhile, the Court granted the former President the opportunity to amend his petition so that some clerical errors, including what his legal team describes as an inadvertent reference of the Electoral Commission as President Akufo-Addo, could be rectified.

In his petition, the former President had at some point interchanged 1st Respondent (EC) with 2nd Respondent (Nana Akufo-Addo). This mistake had led to him asking for a run-off between himself and the Electoral Commission (EC).

Even though the error was clearly clerical, the EC and President Akufo-Addo’s legal team had opposed the motion for allowance to amend, a shrewd move that appears to be something that the EC and the President’s lawyers will build on and use as part of the defense.

After proceedings today, the former President updated his followers on Facebook: “The Supreme Court this morning granted the motion for amendment of my petition challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election declared by the Electoral Commission,” he wrote.

As is the desire of many Ghanaians, the Court also announced its decision to broadcast live the proceedings of the court. 

Former President Mahama is in court asking for an annulment of the December Presidential election results on account of the fact that the results had been premised on figures used by the EC that turned out to be mathematically impossible.

After the EC Chairperson, Jean Adukwei Mensah, had declared Akufo-Addo as President-Elect, the EC had then published the numbers. A calculation of the numbers and allocated percentages added up to more than 100%. 

In a bid to correct the numbers, the EC subsequently, readjusted the figures it had already declared, six times, raising accusations of forgery. This is what informed former President Mahama’s decision to go to court.

However, since it emerged that the former President’s legal team had made a mistake in the petition, both the EC and the President’s legal team appear to have been angling to point out to the court that the arithmetical mistakes made by the EC were only human, just like the clerical mistakes made by John Mahama in his petition.

After court today, Frank Davies, one of President Akufo-Addo’s lawyers told journalists that even though they had first opposed the application by the former President for the opportunity to amend his petition to correct his mistakes, “we are all human beings and make mistakes.”

After the court granted him the request to amend his petition, former President Mahama was to make his amended petition ready by 4:00 PM. The EC and President Akufo-Addo are to file their amended responses by tomorrow, Friday, January 15th.

The case has been adjourned to the 19th of January, 2021.