Election Petition: Final addresses, clarification may not even count- Ato Dadzie

A member of the National Democratic Congress legal team has said it will be delusionary for parties contesting the 2012 presidential election petition in the Supreme Court to have their hopes flying and confidence buoyed following Wednesday’s clarifications of issues in the addresses by the parties.

Nana Ato Dadzie says the case, is still wide open, adding the judges may even give a verdict outside the addresses of the parties in the case.

After almost eight months of rigorous election petition battle, the petitioners and three respondents presented their addresses, and were made to deliver oral addresses to sum up their cases.

Last Wednesday, it was the turn of the judges to ask questions and clarifications from the lawyers on issues they were not clear about.

Addison was asked to clarify issues about the KPMG report and the total number of pink sheet exhibits the petitioners are now relying on. Quarshie Idun, counsel for the second respondent, among other issues, was also asked to clarify his thought on the statutory consequence of electoral irregularity; Tsatsu Tsikata, counsel for the third respondent, was also given the opportunity to explain his retroactive application of the law and the invalidation of election results. Counsel for the first respondent, Tony Lithur, had a second bite at the cherry on biometric verification controversy.

Even though the clarification proceedings had been overshadowed greatly by the contempt hearing of the NPP General Secretary, Sir John and Hopeson Adorye, some partisan pundits following the case are silently jubilating already, based on the questions that were asked of the lawyers.

On Joy FM and Multi TV Newsfile programme on Saturday, host, Samson Lardy Ayenini, asked Nana Ato Dadzie if what happened on Wednesday gave a clue as to what the final verdict will be.

The NDC lawyer and former Chief of Staff was unambiguous in his response. He stated that the questions cut across all the parties and will be quite erroneous for anybody to start jubilating.

As far he is concerned, the case is still opened and could go either way. He added the judges may even give a judgement outside the addresses given by the parties involved in the case.