This is disappointing - Nana Dadzie regrets decision of Supreme Court on Election Petition

Nana Ato Dadzie, a former Chief of Staff, has said that he is disappointed in the final verdict of the Supreme Court that dismissed the petition of John Dramani Mahama for a rerun of the presidential elections on the grounds that no one had the required 50% required in the elections.

According to him, the judges erred in not allowing the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa to mount the witness box, particularly because the petition presented before the Supreme Court sought to question the figures purported them.

Speaking on JoyNews, he said, “This matter was essentially a question of figures, whether the figures are right or wrong. If the person who has all the figures stays out, that is where the problem begins. I think am disappointed because I thought the court could have even exercised its own discretion to compel the EC.

“If two people are contesting over a figure or an issue, and there is a third person who holds the answer or the item, what do you do? You bring that third person in to find out if A is right or B is right,” a report on myjoyonline.com said.

Nana Ato Dadzie indicated that the Supreme Court missed an opportunity based on its decision, to make an opening for some interventions to ensuring there is a clear resolution of the issues at stake.

But he admitted that the legal practice of Ghana does not make room for the court itself to call in a witness to assist the case.

“This is a civil case. I mean with all due respect to the learned Supreme court, I am not contesting their judgement in that sense I am entitled to my opinion but this is a civil case and you hear the issues on the balance of probabilities. I mean, a submission of no case in a civil case is even rare.

“The court too has said so. I mean on such a competitive situation like this you do not go straight, I don’t think we should have gone straight with the purely legal procedural approach that we did.

“It would have been fair to have the EC Chair brought in. The Supreme Court in its wisdom could probably have said ‘okay, we throw it back to you, find a way of looking at the results again.’ What would have been wrong with that?

“I think they could have been innovative, broken new grounds for us to move away from the purely legalistic approach to find a way of reconciling the issues and then they could have come back with the results.

“They asked the accounting firm to go and reconcile the issues and bring it back. So, what was wrong, why couldn’t we do it this time around. That is my problem,” he stated.

John Dramani Mahama stated after the ruling of the Supreme Court that he disagrees with the process of the ruling.

"Much as I'm aware that we're legally bound by the decision of the highest court of the land - the Supreme Court of Ghana, I disagree with the process and the ruling of the case. For the avoidance of doubts, I said that much as I'm aware that we're legally bound by the decision of the Supreme Court, I disagree with the process of the trial and ruling of the court," he stated.