Disqualified independent presidential candidate Marricke Kofi Gane has expressed disappointment in the Supreme Court for dismissing the application from the petitioner to have access to the original documents from the Electoral Commission (EC).
He argued that it was in the interest of the judiciary, Ghanaians and the EC to have the original documents submitted for inspection if there was nothing to hide.
The Supreme Court has by a unanimous decision dismissed former President John Dramani Mahama’s application to inspect documents of the Electoral Commission on grounds that the lawyers for the petitioner failed to establish reasons why the application should be granted.
The motion, which was filed at the apex court Tuesday, is asking the apex court to grant the petitioner permission to inspect some documents of the EC.
The petitioner was seeking to have documents which include the originals of the constituency presidential election result collation forms (form 9) for all constituencies, the originals of all constituency presidential election results summary sheet (form 10) and the originals of the regional presidential election collation forms (form 11) for all regions.
The others are the team is asking for the originals of the regional presidential election results summary sheets (form 12) for all regions and the original declaration of the presidential results form (form 13) and the records of the alleged update to the purported declaration of presidential election results on 9th December 2020, of the results of four (4) constituencies in the Greater Accra Region.
Lawyer Tsikata had argued that the request would be in the interest of the EC to provide the documents if they had nothing to hide.
He said it would ensure transparency and credibility but the 1st and 2nd respondents opposed saying the petitioner already have these documents.
The court in its ruling said the petitioner failed to demonstrate that he had no copies of the documents in question.
The court said the witnesses of the petitioner admitted on oath of having copies of the documents.
The chair of the panel Chief Justice Anin-Yeboah said the application and whether it would be granted was subject to the discretion of the court and not as of rights.
He added the application did not also raise that it had no copies of the original documents.
”In the instant case, the applicant has not raised any issue that he has no copies of the documents of the subject of this application. In view of the fact that the proceedings show the petitioner has copies of all the documents the subject of this application. We are of the opinion that no proper case has been made to warrant the exercise of our discretion in favour of the applicant.”
Reacting to the ruling, Mr. Gane pointed out that for the sake of transparency and integrity, the request should have been granted to quash all doubts surrounding the legitimacy of President Akufo-Addo.
He posted on Facebook saying: ”This is VERY sad.
It was in the interest of the Judiciary and ALL Ghana, that we quash ALL doubts about the EC’s Transparency & Integrity and the President’s Legitimacy, by letting them show originals of their documents IF indeed they were wrought in integrity. We just stabbed the soul of our Freedom and Justice.#TheCaseIsDone”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
