Election Petition: John Mahama applies for suspension of trial

John Dramani Mahama has filed an application to the court praying for a stay of proceedings in the ongoing election petition trial.

The Petitioner in the 2020 Election Petition, John Dramani Mahama, is expected to file witness statements and the accompanying affidavits on his petition at the Supreme Court registry today, Thursday, January 21, 2021.

Based on this order, the NDC flagbearer is seeking to curtail the process so the Supreme Court will hear the pending review application for the ruling against the interrogatory questions presented in court by lead Counsel, Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata.

The court on January 19 2020, dismissed the motion filed by the lawyers of John Dramani Mahama in the election petition case seeking to require the Electoral Commissioner to admit to errors she made during her declaration of election results.

The apex court unanimously ‘threw out’ the NDC Flagbearer’s application after identifying that the interrogatories were irrelevant to the case.

But Mahama’s lawyers believe that the interrogatories will determine how the case will proceed hence the need for the apex court to take a second look at the decision they made not to allow the interrogatories.

It is on this basis that the former president filed for a stay in the proceedings in the ongoing election petition as he does not want to file their witness statement pending their application for review.

John Mahama’s lawyer wants the court to determine the decision of the review before continuing with the hearing of the election petition because “they believe that discovery process, such as interrogatories are the normal pretrial process to limit the scope of a trial and the review application will seek to recognize the right to have recourse to them”

The lawyers add that “in this particular case, the use of the mechanism of interrogatories will ensure a speedier trial.”

“And the denial to us of leave to serve interrogatories is a serious miscarriage of justice which we expect to have remedied in the review.” The Application states.

Below is the application