Sir John: Why can’t we get copies of election petition judgment?

General Secretary of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, says the non-availability of copies of the election petition judgment, days after it was delivered on Thursday August 29, 2013, is “baffling”.

According to Sir John, as he is popularly known, contrary to claims by the Supreme Court that the parties involved in the case could get copies of the final verdict from the Court’s registry, no copies are there.

“…Unfortunately for us, on Thursday when these judgments were read in Court and his lordship Atuguba said copies are at the registry, we applied to the registry for copies; there are no copies there”, Sir John told XYZ News in an interview on Sunday.

He said: “The following day, Friday, I applied formally on behalf of the NPP to the Supreme Court through the registry for copies of the judgment; we were told that we should come back on Monday or Tuesday”.

“There is no judgment there. That is what baffles everybody,” he said.

The nine-member panel of Justices delivered its final verdict late last month after eight months of hearing the matter at the apex Court.

The Bench affirmed President John Mahama of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) as having been “validly elected” in the 2012 presidential poll.

He was congratulated by the first petitioner, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, NPP’s 2012 Presidential candidate, who has since conceded and entreated his supporters to accept the verdict in peace and move on.