Election Petition: Candidates in the 2020 election have all the documents — Oppong Nkrumah

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a Spokesperson for President Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2020 Presidential Election Petition trial, says the documents being requested for inspection by the Petitioner is in the custody of all candidates in the 2020 Presidential Election.

He said the documents were made available to the candidates through their agents.

“These documents are equally in the custody of President Nana Akufo-Addo, the second respondents,” he added.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah, who was speaking at a post-trial interview, said the Petitioner filed the application only on Tuesday February 2, 2021 and was served same on the respondents, so it was not true that it was filed way ahead of time.

He said “We also noticed principally that as the case moves on and particularly with this application, the Petitioner is now seeking to invite the court to breech a time tested rule in litigation.”

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the respondents have now observed that the Petitioner was shifting the burden of proof and they were doing that through the backdoor.

He said inspection of documents was generally allowed in litigation but it was not a matter that an applicant have it as of right, it was at the discretion of the Court and the applicant have to convince the court.

Mr Oppong-Nkrumah said the applicant needed to prove that there was some necessity for it for the court's discretion to be triggered.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a motion filed by the Counsel for the Petitioner seeking an order to inspect documents from the Electoral Commission.

The motion on notice concerns some original documents regarding Presidential Results Collation Forms with originals of all Constituency Presidential Election Results Collation Forms and Summary Sheets of all constituencies in Ghana.

The Court presided over by Chief Justice Kwesi Anin Yeboah in its ruling, said “the proceedings so far show that the petitioner has copies of the documents which are the subject of this application.”

He said the applicant had not demonstrated that he had no copies of the documents in question.

That the two witnesses of the petitioner who have testified so far has indicated that they have copies of the documents.

Former President Mahama has filed a Petition at the Supreme Court seeking an annulment of the Presidential election results and a re-run of the election between him and Nana Akufo-Addo who is the second Respondent in the petition.

The Petition is also seeking an injunction directing the 1st Respondent, the Electoral Commission to proceed to conduct a second election between the petitioner and the 2nd respondent as candidates, as required under Articles 63 (4) and (5) of the 1992 constitution.

The trial has been adjourned to Friday February 5 for continuation.

—GNA