Landmark election petition would be broadcast live on TV and radio

The National broadcaster, GTV and Radio Ghana would be allowed to survey a setup on Tuesday April 16, 2013.

Our court correspondent, Mabel Aku Banaseh reports that it is however not clear whether the live broadcast would commence Tuesday on the first day of hearing of the substantive matter, but the subsequent hearing days would be live on television and radio.

Hearing of the landmark electoral petition, which is contesting the declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as the winner of the December 2012 presidential polls begins at the Supreme Court in Accra Tuesday.

The petitioners are expected to call their first witness/and or witnesses Tuesday, depending on how long the witness/witnesses would testify and how long cross-examination would take and if need be, how long the re-examination lasts.

The case, which promises to be a significant historical event in Ghana’s legal and political culture, has the petitioners urging the court to annul 4,670,504 valid votes and subsequently declare the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as the one who won the December 2012 elections.

According to them, Nana Akufo-Addo won the elections by 59.69 per cent while President Mahama polled 39.1 per cent.

They are, therefore, challenging the EC’s declaration of President Mahama as winner of the presidential polls with 50.70 per cent.

However, the EC, which is one of the respondents in the case and the conductor of the polls, is standing by its December 9, 2012 declaration of President Mahama as the winner of the polls with 50.7 per cent while it still holds that Nana Akufo-Addo placed second with 47.7 per cent.

By Enoch Darfah Frimpong & Mabel Aku Banaseh / Graphic.com.gh