Election Petition: I have not targeted Jean Mensa – Tsatsu Tsikata

Lead Counsel for the National Democratic Congress in the election petition case, Lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata, has said that his arguments in court today were in no way targeted at the Electoral Commissioner as an individual but rather as the leader of the institution.

His comments followed an application prayed the apex court to grant the motion which sought to make the EC Chair Jean Mensa concede errors contained in her declaration of the December 7 elections.

According to him, one of the 12 interrogatory questions about the said errors was “a question only one person in the world can answer”.

But a Supreme Court judge, Justice Nene Amegatcher, interrogated why the questions were posed to the personality and not the Chairperson since she served in that capacity.

“We’ll be satisfied just with her position at the EC because in her absence, any other person [from the EC] can be a representative. The Chairperson represents the EC not the name.” He noted.

Tsatsu Tsikata answered that as a Returning Officer, she had a name thus thought there was no reason not to mention same.

“Respectfully my lord, there is only one Returning Officer for the presidential election and that is the EC chairperson… she is the Chairperson and she has a name”.

He was however quick to add that, “we do not mention her name by targeting an individual. I do not target Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa”.

Meanwhile, the 7-member panel, presided by Chief Justice Kwesi Anin-Yeboah dismissed the application by the NDC Lawyers stating issues of irrelevance and adjourned the case to Tuesday, January 20, 2020.