Executive Director of ASEPA, a civil society organization, Mensah Thompson, has argued that even though the Supreme Court dismissed the motion of leave to serve interrogatories on the Electoral Commission (EC) in the ongoing 2020 Election Petition, the chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, will still eventually answer the questions the motion sought to ask.

The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision dismissed a motion of leave sought by lawyers of the Petitioner, John Mahama, to serve interrogatories on the EC.

Commenting on the matter, Mr Thompson noted that the Court only succeeded in deferring the questions that the lawyers of John Mahama sought to ask the EC, insisting that during cross-examination, the lawyers could still pose the questions to the EC.

“…Counsel for the petitioner can still raise those issues during the course of the trial especially during cross-examination which we totally agree, but there is a saying in Akan that says “a slap that belongs to you, the earlier you take it the better”.

So what the Supreme Court has done through this dismissal is only to defer this unavoidable “slap” that ultimately belongs to the Chairperson of the first Respondent to later in the trial,” he argued.

Some other commentators have disagreed with the decision of the court to dismiss the motion, especially since a similar motion was granted in the 2012 Election Petition.