Mahama to address nation at 5 pm after Supreme Court defeat

The Former President, John Dramani Mahama will address the nation today, Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 5 p.m at his Cantonments residence

A member of the NDC legal team, Abrahama Amaliba, made the announcement to the media shortly after the Supreme Court dismissed President Mahama’s election petition on Thursday.

After the EC declared Akufo-Addo as winner of the 2020 election, Former President John Dramani Mahama run to the Supreme court seeking the court to order the EC (first respondent) to conduct a run-off between him (Mahama) and President Akufo-Addo (second respondent).

Former President Mahama filed the petition on December 30, last year.

Per the Supreme Court Rules (Amendments), 2016 (C.I 99), the petition was to have a lifespan of 42 days.

However, with the judgment coming on today, it means the petition travelled for 64 days.

During these 64 days, the court sat on 17 occasions to hear the respective arguments of the lawyers for the parties (Mahama, the EC and Akufo-Addo).

The petitioner called three witnesses to buttress his case.

They were Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC); Dr Michael Kpessa Whyte and Mr Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo (the two representatives of the NDC in the EC’s strong room)

The two respondents — the EC and President Akufo-Addo — decided not to call any witness and urged the court to decide the case on the strength of the petitioner’s case.

Also, during the course of the hearing, the petitioner filed nine applications out of which he won one and lost eight.

The only application upheld by the court was his application for the court to allow him to amend his petition.

The eight applications that were lost included interrogatories, objection against the EC’s decision not to adduce evidence, permission to reopen the petitioner’s case and three review applications challenging the court’s decision to dismiss the first three mentioned applications.

The rest were permission for the petitioner to file a supplementary statement of case, and another one seeking permission to inspect some original documents from the EC.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, Presided over by the Chief Justice, Justice Anin Yeboah has affirmed the Electoral Commission (EC’s) declaration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the winner of the December 7, 2020 presidential election and the constitutionally elected President of the Republic of Ghana.

Giving the ruling, Justice Anin said,” Akufo-Addo was validly elected.”

Source: Atinkaonline.com