Election 2020 petition: We’ll be smiling on judgment day, says Ayine

Dr Dominic Ayine, a spokesman for former president John Mahama in the ongoing election petition hearing, believes they will be smiling on judgment day if, “in fairness”, their evidence in court on Tuesday (2 February) is anything to go by.

Speaking during a post-trial interview, Ayine said they are happy with the outcome of the cross-examination of their second witness Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte.

“So we are here today in a very high spirit. I can see from the faces and body language of Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang and my chairman that we had a wonderful day in court and I am sure that in fairness if this evidence is anything to go by, on judgment day we will be smiling,” he said.

Harassment of witness

He said their second witness Dr Kpessa-Whyte was subjected to harassment during cross-examination by some of the judges and counsel for the first respondent.

“If you saw the line of cross-examination by lawyer for the first respondent and then unfortunately some of the Justices of the Supreme Court indicating that Dr Kpessa-Whyte ought to have been present when the conversation took place, that was rather unfortunate,” Dr Ayine said.

“And you saw some of the scenes that played out in court today, where the witness was being harassed left-right-centre, because his evidence, clearly was against the narrative of the Electoral Commission and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s lawyers have been trying to put out that both of them left because they noticed that their candidate was losing,” he said.

Cross-examination

Dr Kpessa-Whyte was grilled on Tuesday by lawyers for the first respondent (the Electoral Commission) and second respondent (President Akufo-Addo) in an effort to discredit him and the petitioner’s case.

Dr Kpessa-Whyte was one of two members of the petitioner’s political party (the National Democratic Congress) who represented him (petitioner) at the EC’s National Collation Centre during the 7 December elections.

During cross-examination, Dr Kpessa-Whyte sought to present a scenario in which, just before the chair of the Electoral Commission and returning officer for the presidential elections declared the election results on 9 December 2020, he was “instructed”, together with his colleague Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, to leave the EC National Collation Centre to consult with the petitioner.

However, on their blind side, the EC chair decided after they had left to announce the results of the election without giving them an opportunity to register reservations they had about the results from some regions, he said.

The lead lawyer for the EC, in response to this claim by the witness, inquired whether or not Dr Kpessa-Whyte ever spoke directly with the EC. His answer was negative. He claimed, however, that Jean Mensa had spoken with his colleague, Mettle-Nunoo.

Next court sitting

The presiding judge, Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah, adjourned sitting to Wednesday 3 February 2021.

The petitioner is expected to move his latest application at tomorrow’s sitting, praying the court to order the EC to permit him to inspect all original documents with regard to Election 2020 which are in the EC’s custody.

The chair of the EC, Jean Mensa, the witness for the first respondent (as the chair of the Electoral Commission) is expected to go into the box for cross-examination by lawyers for the petitioner and the second respondent.

Fred Dzakpata

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