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He said the petitioners have so far failed to present a compelling case which will warrant her to mount the witness box.
In an address to the media after the court's sitting yesterday, he accused the petitioners of employing propaganda tactics in the case.
“This is not [a] budget hearing of parliament that the EC must come and justify its budget. You have come to court with a specific petition and the onus of proof is on you to show to the court that this is the basic case that someone needs questions to answer,” Oppong Nkrumah said.
He added, “You cannot resort to propaganda answers that it’s in the interest of all Ghanaians” for the EC chair to mount the witness box when there is no clear reason for her to do so.
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Jean Adukwei Mensa is chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana
Recalling the events of the 2013 Election Petition, Oppong Nkrumah noted that the then EC boss, Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, was obliged to be cross-examined because the Petitioners made a substantive case and produced evidence which required answers to some of the gaps in the elections.
“In the 2013 Election Petition, the Electoral Commission mounted the witness box because the Petitioner came to court with results of about 11 polling stations, pink sheets, to back same which are all infractions and strike them out. The Petitioner in 2013 mounted the witness box to make his case and that the EC had a case to respond to,” the Spokesperson for Akufo-Addo’s legal team argued.