Lawyer Akoto Ampaw, lead counsel for President Nana Akufo-Addo in the election petition in his opposition to the application for inspection of original documents said the application was an attempt by the petitioner to shift the burden of proof to the Electoral Commission.
He argued that the petitioner had access to all the copies of all the original documents and had no grounds to demand to inspect the original copies.
He told the court that the petitioner for reasons best known to him refused to bring the copies to court to argue his case.
The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision on Wednesday dismissed an application by the 2020 NDC Presidential Candidate, John Mahama to be allowed to inspect original documents in the custody of the Electoral Commission (EC).
He insisted that the court applies its decision on the same issue in the 2012/2013 petition where it denied such a request.
He added that the petitioner has refused to take any step to produce any document to support the petition.
Lawyer Ampaw went on to state that the petitioner could raise an issue if the document in question is not authentic.
He insisted the petitioner wanted to shift the burden of proof to the EC when he is the one to provide evidence.
He said the petitioner could not shift the burden of proof when he had not led any evidence in response to his case.
The documents the petitioner wanted to see were the original copies 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 rest were 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 December 9, 2020, of the results of four (4) constituencies in the Greater Accra Region.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
