Mahama vrs Akufo-Addo: What happened at the Supreme Court on the first day of hearing

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The Supreme Court sat today, January 14, 2021, for the first time, on the election petition as filed by National Democratic Congress (NDC) Flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama.

The case was presided over by a seven-member panel of judges headed by the Chief Justice, Kwesi Aning Yeboah. The other members were Gertrude Torkornoo, Samuel Marful-Sau, Yaw Appau, Nii Ashie Kotey, Mariama Owusu, and Nene Abayateye Ofoe Amegatcher.

The first sitting was a short one, mainly with two issues to be looked at by the court.

The first was the application for live transmission of the court’s proceedings and the second, a motion filed by the petitioner, John Mahama, for an amendment of initial processes filed to the Supreme Court.

The application for a live telecast of proceedings was granted by the court. Prof. Nii Kotey noted that the court had already independently considered the motion and made arrangements for same. It, therefore, concluded that the Election Petition case will be broadcast, pending the court’s considerations and arrangements.

The second was a motion for the amendment of the petition filed by Mr. Mahama, which contained some errors which translated that the petition was for a rerun between the NDC candidate and the 1st Respondent; the Electoral Commission.

The motion for an amendment which was moved by Legal Representative for Mr. Mahama, Tsatsu Tsikata was opposed by Counsel for the Electoral Commission; Justin Amenuvor, and Lawyers for Akufo-Addo who argued that even the motion for the amendment was fraught with errors.

The reaction to this was a question from one of the sitting judges who asked if they had never made mistakes.

After this, the judges retired briefly to consider the motion for amendment after which they agreed and granted. This means lawyers now have the go-ahead to make amendments to the originating processes.

In response to an earlier objection by lawyers for the respondent, the court asked; “haven’t you made mistakes before? We all make mistakes don’t we?”

— Kojo Oppong Nkrumah (@konkrumah) January 14, 2021

The court, from its decision at the first hearing on the election petition case, has given the petitioner, John Dramani Mahama and his counsels up till 4 pm today, Thursday, January 14, 2021, to file their amendments to the petition whereas the respondents; the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Electoral Commission, were given 4 pm tomorrow, to file their amendments.

The case has since been adjourned to Tuesday, January 19, 2021, for a pre-trial.