By Felix Engsalige Nyaaba
Accra, April 17, 2013
By a
unanimous decision, the Supreme Court yesterday endorsed the live telecast of
the substantive matter of the ongoing election petition case.
The petitioners are three leading members of the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) comprising its 2012 presidential candidate Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo, his running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the party’s
chairman, Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey.
They are challenging the legitimacy of President
John Dramani Mahama, the winner of the 2012 presidential elections.
According to the court, the decision to allow the
premier television station, the GTV to telecast the proceeding live was in the
interest of justice, the public interest and for the enrichment of the country’s
young but vibrant democracy.
The nine
member panel reached the decision and endorsed the live coverage of proceedings
in court after all parties in the case have not raised any objection to the
live coverage.
The court said, the live telecast of the proceedings
would further ease the unnecessary tension and acrimony in the country since
the petition was filed before the court.
“If you look in town since the this petition was
brought here, you could see tension, acrimonies, we cannot allow things to go on
like that, we are all been governed by the constitution and so when issues of
this nature arise, we have to look at the public interest.”
“This live coverage of proceedings would also
further erase any misconception of what happened in this court or during the
proceeding of the case, the court held.
All parties in the case agreed for the live telecast
of proceeding and have all expressed for the need of it for public interest and
justice.
Philip
Addison
Counsel for the petitioners, Mr. Philip Addison observed
that the case is an important one which has high public interest and that it is
above the ordinary case in court.
He added, “ the constitution itself has endorsed
that cases such as the petition is of public interest and should be open to the
viewing and hearing of the public, so we
think that the people of Ghana interest would be best served if they could sit at
homes and view or observed proceeding in
court.”
Tony
Lithur
Lead counsel for the president and first respondent
said, ‘ we welcome the live coverage of the proceeding by GTV, but
we also wish and hope that other television stations in the country and
international media , the CN , BBC , others would also be allow to cover the
proceedings.
The
EC Lawyer
Counsel for the Electoral Commission, Mr James
Quashie –Idun, “we will go along with other counsel, that the proceedings be
telecast live, we have no objection, but we leave the issue on the discretion
of the court.”
Tsatsu Tsikata
Counsel for the NDC, Mr Tsikata said, “ we do not only
heartily welcome the decision of the proceedings this nature to be telecast live but we also wish other
international la media like the CNN, Aljazeera, the South Africa TVs, and
others would be allow to carry this all important case worldwide for viewers.”
He added that, “we pray and hope the court would
continue to extend this to other cases that have national interest.”
By
Court
“If you look in the country since this election
petition case, there have been tension, acrimonies, so the issues as we decided
at last sitting, we have resolved that the live coverage of the proceeding if
that would so serve the interest of the public,” the court held.
The court further stated, the question of the TV
live coverage’s on this case is here by popularly agreed by all parties, it
would help erase the misconception by any extension by the conclusion of this
case.”
The court however turned down an appeal by the
petitioners to be allowed to bring in equipments to enable them present their
evidence through a power point presentation.
According to the judges, they wondered what purposes
or advantage that the power point presentation would add to the exhibit
provided by the petitioners in their affidavits.
The Petitioners, who have named President Mahama,
the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Kwadwo
Afari Gyan and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the political party on
whose ticket President John Dramani Mahama contested the elections as
respondents, are claiming the election was rigged by the EC in favor of
President Mahama.
They are expected to call in their first witness before the court today, to
testify and tell the court as to how, when and where the alleged
irregularities, omissions, malpractices of the 2012 elections took place.
They have the burden to prove to the Supreme Court
beyond reasonable doubt that indeed the EC has defrauded the results of the
election conducted on 7 and 8 December, 2012 in favour of John Dramani Mahama.
The Supreme Court has set out two issues as to
whether or not there were statutory violations, omissions, irregularities and
malpractices in the conduct of the elections held on December 7 and 8, 2012.
The court is also to ascertain whether or not the
said violations, omissions, irregularities and malpractices (if any) affected
the outcome of the results of the 2012 presidential elections.
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