The Supreme Court has dismissed yet another application of John Mahama (petitioner) in the ongoing election 2020 petition.
Mahama and his legal team were praying the apex court to grant him opportunity to inspect the originals of election 2020 documents in order to satisfy themselves with the actual results of the election.
According to the motion filed by the petitioner on 2 February 2021, should their application be granted, their perusal of the original documents will afford them better particulars to cross examine the witness of the 1st Respondent in the case (Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission).
Lawyers of the respondents, Justin Amenuvor and Akoto Ampaw for the first and second respondents respectively opposed the application.
They argued that the petitioner by his application is attempting to shift the burden of proof on him to the respondents in the case. They argued further that all political parties and their agents were given duplicate copies of every single election results document from the polling station level, through the constituency, regional and national levels.
Further, they stressed that per the decision in the 2012/2013 election petition where Justice Sophia Adenyira, Justice of the Supreme Court, ruled that in so far as the petitioner then (Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) and his party agents were given duplicate copies of the original election documents, the duplicate copies are admissible in court just as the originals and that their application to inspect the original copies is rendered practically unnecessary, same ought to apply in the instant application before the Supreme Court.
Duplicates admissible
The seven-member Supreme Court therefore dismissed the application, explaining that the petitioner has not in anyway indicated in court that they do not have duplicate copies of the documents because the two witnesses he has called so far in the trial (Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte) indicated that their party agents were given copies of all documents at all levels.
The court further ruled that the petitioner has not raised any concerns or issues about the authenticity of the duplicate copies in his possession and to that end, the application is dismissed.
“No issue has been raised against the authenticity of the duplicates in possession of the applicants… from the above reasons the application is dismissed,” Chief Justice Anin Yeboah said.
Wilberforce Asare
Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#asaaseradio #TVOL
