Election Petition: Judges meet over final verdict

Information reaching Daily Guide indicates that the nine member panel hearing Ghana’s landmark presidential election petition brought to the Supreme Court by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), will be meeting for their final conference today.

The final conference would acquaint each of the nine Supreme Court justices with the views of their colleagues before the final verdict is delivered on Thursday August 29, 2013. On the day of verdict, individual members of the panel presided over by Justice William Atuguba would likely deliver their separate opinions.

Essentially, the conference is designed to collate each judge’s opinion to eliminate surprises during the final ruling, DAILY GUIDE has gathered. A similar conference was last week convened for the panel members to appraise one another with their individual views.

Sources told DAILY GUIDE that today is set for the final conference at the Supreme Court before the court convenes for the final verdict on Thursday.

Either party to the petition is sure of victory with President Mahama believing that he would be maintained.

On the other hand, the NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo and his supporters are of the opinion that a case of irregularities was proved on the preponderance of probabilities and he is expected to be pronounced the winner.

The final verdict would bring to a close the protracted legal battle over the December 2012 election that has lasted about eight months.