Election Petition has not raised any reasonable cause of action – EC says in its 22-point objections

On Friday January 22, the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana filed a 22-point legal objection in the Election Petition hearing.

The legal objections said among other things that, the petition has not “raised any reasonable cause of action.”

The Presidential Candidate of the NDC filed the petition at the apex court to challenge the results of last year’s elections.

Mr Mahama wants a rerun of the elections because in his view, no candidate obtained the number of votes to win the polls.

His lawyers have, however, filed an application at the Court on Thursday, January 21 asking the apex court to hold on with the hearing of the petition.

This follows an application for a review after the Supreme Court dismissed a motion by the petitioners that was seeking to ask the Electoral Commission (EC) to answer some key questions.

Mr Mahama wanted the Commission’s Chair, Jean Mensa, to admit, among other things, that the figures and percentages she announced come to 100.3% instead of 100%.

The presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) also wanted her to admit that the subsequent correction of results in statements issued by the EC is different from what candidates obtained as captured in the summary of results sheets published by the EC.

But the Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, in a unanimous decision dismissed the application for interrogatories allowing for the substantive matter to be heard.

On Wednesday, January 20, lead counsel for the petitioners, Tsatsu Tsikata applied for a review of the ruling.

Following that, he has filed a stay of proceedings until after the application of the review has been heard.

“My Council has also served a request to admit Facts on 1st Respondent and has not yet received a response to that.

“The Request to Admit Facts is necessary for the finalization of our witness statement. Yet the Orders made by the Court on 20th January 2021 require us to file witness statements by noon on 21st January 2021.

“All the above constitute exceptional circumstances on the basis of which we respectfully seek Orders of the Court staying proceedings in this case until the determination of application for review.

“Not to stay proceedings would create the unfortunate impression that the review application has been predetermined.”