supreme court will rule on election petition by end of month

Ben Ephson

Pollster and Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper, Ben Ephson is anticipating the election case between the leaders of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and President John Dramani Mahama together with the Electoral Commission to end next month.

Ben Ephson hoped the Supreme Court will in the month of May give its verdict on the Presidential election case, in which the petitioners; Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey are challenging the legitimacy of the President.

Speaking on Radio Gold’s newspaper review Tuesday morning, he expressed certainty that the court may soon rule over the case to ascertain the truth behind the NPP’s petition.

He explained that per the evidence that the petitioners and the respondents; President John Mahama and Electoral Commission have all presented to support their claims, the case can now be looked at quickly so as to avoid delays.

To him, unlike the Kenya election case between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the incumbent President of the country, Uhuru Kenyatta, where the court sitting over the case gave its verdict a couple of days ago to finalize the exact victor in the Kenyan March Presidential elections, Ghana’s situation differs and so, believed the petitioners’ case is not delayed because the facts cannot be compared to the Kenya issue.

“…I’m sure within two or three weeks, the issues will just be settled. I think that within a month, this case should be done with,” he expressed.

However, he disagreed with critics who have proposed for a live telecast of the election case at the court, asserting that if the parties repose their confidence in the Supreme Court, televising the case would not be an option.

“This is only a minute path because televising it, if you don’t have the evidence; you don’t have it. If your evidence is flawed, the live telecast will not reignite a flawed evidence…So, once Supreme Court has taken a decision on that, why are they insisting? And I believe that we need to move on.”

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