Election petition: Mahama’s lawyers want review hearing rescheduled
The 2020 NDC flagbearer John Dramani Mahama’s legal team have asked the court to reschedule the election petition hearing today to 11:30am.
The team led by Tsatsu Tsikata in the on-going election petition made this known in a letter addressed to the Chief Justice Anin Yeboah before Thursday’s proceedings.
Mr Tsikata is requesting an opportunity to respond to arguments raised by respondents counsels (Justin Amenuvor and Akoto Ampaw) to his review application.
The letter signed by Tony Lithur dated February 18, 2021, reads:
“I received a call from the Registrar of the court close to midnight, notifying me of respondents’ filed affidavits opposing the petitioner’s application for review, soft copies of which he had sent to my email at 11:13pm. I forwarded the processes to Lead Counsel for Petitioner at 11:30pm.
“In order to allow Lead Counsel for petitioner reasonable time to factor the said affidavit into his arguments in support of the application for review, I would respectfully request that this morning’s proceedings be commenced at 11:30am instead of the scheduled 9:30am.”
The apex court which had fixed today’s proceedings for 9:30am have been forced to take a decision on the above letter presented by the petitioner, John Mahama before hearing the review application.
On February 16, 2021, the petitioner, John Dramani Mahama, in the 2020 election through his counsel filed for stay of proceedings until his application for review regarding an earlier ruling of the court is heard.
The review application filed by the petitioner John Mahama’s team was for the court to take a second look at its ruling on February 11, which was the refusal to allow the EC boss to mount the box.
The team also want the apex court to review its decision on the re-opening application delivered today (Tuesday).
The stay of proceedings means the court will have to make a determination of the substantive matter before it can hear the closing submissions from the three parties.