Blocking EC interrogatories surprising to all lawyers – Mahama’s legal team in shock disbelief over ruling

The dismissal of a motion filed by the lawyers of John Dramani Mahama in the election petition case seeking to require the Electoral Commissioner (EC), Jane Mensa to admit that she made errors during her declaration of election results by the Supreme Court is astounding.

“The court today did something that astounded us and that is because it ruled that we cannot make an application for interrogatories based on existing rules”, Legal Team member of the petitioner, Dr. Dominic Ayine told pressmen outside court premises on Tuesday, January 19, 2021

During the pre-trial, the petitioner of the 2020 presidential results, John Mahama through his Lawyers wanted the EC chairperson to admit errors in her declaration of the winner of the 2020 presidential race.

However, the apex court after identifying that the interrogatories were irrelevant to the case, unanimously dismissed the NDC Flagbearer’s application.

Speaking to the media after the day’s proceedings, the legal team of former president Mahama was therefore shocked by the decision of the courts to not admit interrogatives more so because it appeared that the court was sidestepping its own rules, procedures, and precedent.

“And if you listened carefully to what the learned Chief Justice said, that given the new rules, that is C.I. 99, we could no longer bring applications for interrogatories in respect of election petitions, that really is surprising to a lot of us as lawyers”, spokesperson for the team, Dr. Dominic Ayine said.

“Because basically what the court has done is to overrule its own decision in the 2013 election petition without according reasons as required by the constitution and existing practices and precedents,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing of the case to today, January 20 at 9 am.