General News of Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Source: citi fm

NDC is happy with the Supreme Court – Nana Ato Dadzie

A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legal team, Nana Ato Dadzie has said the party is pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the election 2012 petition case so far.

According to Ato Dadzie, the court is on track by ordering the petitioners to supply to the President and his team better and several particulars of their claims or allegations. “The issues of the whole petition have been series of allegations made by the petitioner; claiming that there were places that voting took place without biometric verification and other irregularities.”

The Supreme Court by a unanimous decision on Tuesday granted the request of respondents to the election petition, President Mahama and the Electoral Commission, for “better particulars of the petitioners” from the petitioners.

The court said it was only proper that the respondents to the petition filed by three leaders of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) were told the nature of the claims against them.

Nana Ato Dadzie said “All these constituted a big petition, but President Mahama’s team just simply went out to ask the NPP to tell us out of the 26,000 polling stations where this happens; it’s been a bit challenging but today [Tuesday] the court ruled that the petitioners must provide us with this data because it will have a big impact on the trial,” he added.

“If you say 11,000 or 4,700 [polling stations] you have a problem within the mix of 26,000 you should be able to tell us where these places are. So basically we think that the court is on the right path for ordering these better particulars.”

Lawyer Ato Dadzie also stated that “this will make the whole trial faster and if at the end of the day they rais all their points and its legitimate we will throw up our hands but if the NPP is unable to prove these particulars then they lose the case.”