Dr Agyeman Budu, a law lecturer at GIMPA has stated that, he does not see the 42 days timeline for the Presidential election petition hearing being circumvented as purported.
Speaking in an interview, he posited that, since the court has placed timelines on both the petitioner and the respondent’s team to present statements, memorandum of issues amongst other information that needs to be provided, the timelines will not be bypassed.
Mr. Budu averred this point due to the circulating speculation that the legal team for the National Democratic Congress is strategically finding ways to delay the hearing process.
Commenting on the court’s decision yesterday, he said he did not see anything wrong with the Supreme Court’s orders after the hearing yesterday.
Speaking on the procedure and decision on the timelines taken by the counsel also, Mr Budu stated that, yesterday’s decision by the Supreme was as a result of it wanting to go in accordance with the time frame spelt out to them in the amended law with regards to election petition hearing.
He said this in relation to the spokesperson and a member of the legal team of the NDC, Lawyer Marietta Brew, lamenting about the court’s decision to tackle five issues out the issues filed and the speed at which they are proceeding with the trial.
“To that extend, I did not see anything necessarily wrong with what the court did in terms of setting out the issues for trial and also setting out, Tuesday 26th for trial to begin.”
Read Also: Supreme Court Adjourns Petition Hearing to 26th January
Touching on if the matters in court are being politicised and as such will contribute to the court not reaching a clear judgement of the matters at hand, he noted that, the issue was a political one from the onset since it is as a result of election, but however, he believes the law will take its cause and ensure that the right judgement on the petition is reached.
The Supreme Court of Ghana yesterday, January 20 had its third sitting on the pre-trial stage of the Presidential election petition hearing which has the Former President, John Dramani Mahama, challenging the validity of the Presidential election results of the December 7 polls as announced by the Electoral Commission which declared Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufo Addo as the winner of the election.
The hearing has seen some dramatic turns as some of the motions filed by the petitioner’s [NDC] legal team were denied by the panel of judges and some orders given which the petitioner has described as unclear and hasty.
On the second sitting, the court denied the NDC’s request to serve interrogatories to the Electoral Commission’s Chairperson who is also the first respondent in the Presidential Election petition, Mrs. Jean Mensah, to provide answers to some particular questions which they deemed relevant.
Read More: SC Denies NDC’s Request To Serve Interrogatories To EC Chair
Notwithstanding, a file for the review of the denial by the court was also not tackled during the third sitting, which the NDC legal team say has left them wondering how events regarding the hearing will be.
