John Mahama
The 2020 flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress, former President John Dramani Mahama, has asked the Supreme Court to put a hold on hearing the election petition in which he is challenging the declaration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the winner of the December 7, 2020 general election.
Lawyers of Mr Mahama yesterday filed an application for stay of proceedings of the case.
Mr Mahama wants the court to halt the hearing of the substantive case until a determination is made on his request for review on the dismissal of his application for interrogatories.
Review
Lawyers for former President Mahama on Wednesday filed an application asking the Supreme Court to review its decision on Tuesday that disallowed them from asking the Electoral Commission (EC) 12 questions in the petition.
Mr Mahama had sought to ask the court to grant leave for the Electoral Commission (1st respondent) to answer 12 questions regarding the declaration of the presidential election results.
According to the court, the interrogatories were irrelevant to the case. The court said the crucial issues of relevance of the application had not been established by the petitioner.
The court added that it is strictly bound to comply with C.I. 99, which mandates it to deal with the petition within 42 days.
But lawyers for Mr Mahama say the court erred in the dismissal of the application for interrogatories, hence the decision to seek review.
They argued that the court should have exercised its discretionary powers in accordance with Article 296 of the Constitution, which requires an authority vested with discretionary power to be fair and candid. They further argued that the court got it wrong yet again when it took the view that the current rules requiring expeditious trial mean even amendments are not allowed.
They again attacked the court’s decision by arguing that nothing in the current Rule CI 99 supports the view the court took that interrogatories are not permitted.
Witness statement
The court on Wednesday ordered Mr Mahama to file his witness statement with exhibits, if any, by the noon of yesterday.
The witness statement, the court said, was to be served on the counsel for the respondents by the close of same day.
This, according to the court, was to help it expedite the processes in the case. The court also announced timelines for the hearing of the case and set out five issues for determination of the petition.
Speed over justice
However, lead counsel for the petitioner, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, objected to the timelines, saying “justice must not be sacrificed for expedition.”
He argued that the timelines could have consequences on the motion for review of the court’s ruling on the application for interrogatories, among other outstanding issues.
His disagreement was quickly shut down by Justice Professor Nii Ashie Kotey, who said the court was operating under the strict timelines of C.I. 99.
Deliberate delay
Meanwhile, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a Minister of Information-Designate, says the plan of the petitioner’s lawyers is to “delay the court process and get a media spectacle for some months”.
“They are just delaying by playing theatrics…they want to give the petitioner the urge over other candidates so that he can still run for the presidency in 2024 on the ticket of the NDC,” Mr Nkrumah said.
“On the first day when we came, our colleagues on the other side started off with an interlocutory application, asking for leave to go and amend and therefore, they started delaying the 42 days clock. That was granted.
“The afternoon, before we appeared in court, they filed another interlocutory application, which took us two hours in court. Because our colleagues are seeking to delay the process and get a media spectacle ongoing for months, all they are doing is theatrics in the chamber, seeking to delay the time,” he added.
The stay of proceedings application is, however, expected to be heard on Tuesday, January 26, 2021.
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