Election Petition: There is predetermined agenda to rule against our petition, Ayine tells Supreme Court

Dr. Dominic Ayine, a spokesperson for former President John Mahama in the ongoing election petition hearing, has described the Supreme Court’s decision to reduce their issues from five to one as unfortunate.

Speaking during a post-trial interview on Tuesday, Ayine said the development is an indication that there is a possible predetermined agenda to rule against their petition.

“It is not true that there is only one issue that needs to be determined in this matter. I am surprised that the Supreme Court itself having set down five key issues to be determined is now reducing the issue to one, which is whether the extent to which the evidence that we have led shows that no one got more than 50% of the votes in accordance with Article 63 of the Constitution,” he said.

Dr. Ayine added: “We have made it abundantly clear in the petition that there were a number of infractions, we are contesting even the constitutionality of the declaration that was made. We are saying that she violated Article 23 because she is an administrative body, we have also said the exercise of discretion was contrary to Article 296 of the Constitution.”

Predetermined agenda

“And to reduce the petition to a single-issue petition is rather unfortunate and smack of a predetermined agenda to rule against the petition in this matter,” he added.

The spokesperson of the petitioner believes the apex court has done the people of Ghana a great disservice with its ruling on Tuesday.

“We think that the court by this decision has not done the people of this country a great service, in the sense that Ghanaians are interested in knowing the truth. The justices today have not given us a reason to believe that they want the people of this country to know the truth about what happened…why figures kept changing from 9 December.”

Dr. Ayine said the country should be worried that a public officer like the EC chairperson Jean Mensa is being prevented from rendering account of her stewardship during the election.

 Court ruling 

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a motion filed by former president John Mahama to reopen his case in order to call the Electoral Commission chairperson, Jean Mensa, as a “hostile witness” in support of his case.

Giving its unanimous ruling, Chief Justice Anin Yeboah said Mahama (the petitioner) has not convinced the court with the sort of evidence he needs from Mensa and how that evidence will help in the final determination of the case.

Therefore, the apex court maintained that the development makes it difficult for it to exercise its discretion in favour of the petitioner hence “the application is dismissed.”

Also, it said a witness who has not yet mounted the witness box cannot be described as a “hostile witness.”

The hearing resumes on Wednesday.