Election petition: Mahama files closing address

Emmanuel Tornyi 05:24 - 24 February 2021

John Mahama and some NDC officials at the Supreme Court

<a href="https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/politics/election-petition-mahama-cant-reopen-case-to-cross-examine-jean-mensa-supreme-court/gk8sls7">John Mahama</a>, the 2020 presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the petitioner in the election petition has filed his closing address as ordered by the Supreme Court on Monday, February 23, 2021.

The address was filed by the lawyers of the petitioner and this means the Supreme Court can give judgment on the petition on March 4, 2021.

The Respondents, Electoral Commission (EC), and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo filed theirs on February 17, 2021.

The Supreme Court earlier dismissed the petitioner's review application to reopen his case in the ongoing election petition trial.

The review application was urging the court to change its earlier ruling not to allow him to reopen his case to enable his lawyers to subpoena the Chairperson of the EC, to testify in court.

The unanimous decision of the nine-member panel chaired by Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah held that the application is without merit.

This is the third review application from the Petitioner that has been dismissed.

The court held that the application for review failed to meet the criteria for review as set out in Rule 54 of the Supreme Court rules, 1996 (C.I 16).

It said Mahama failed to demonstrate any exceptional circumstances that had occasioned a miscarriage of justice to him.