Hearing of the election petition case to annul the election results which declared President Mahama as President after the 2012 election, has been adjourned to Monday April 29, 2013.
The adjournment was prompted by the request from the lawyer for the Electoral Commission, Quarshie Idun, who cited fatigue as his reason.
The President of the panel of judges, after several queries, obliged the request of the counsel.
Day 7 of the hearing of the substantive case was dominated by cross examination of Dr Bawumia by Lawyer Quarshie Idun.
Questions revolved around the voting processes, allegations of padding and deduction of votes among others.
Hearing of the case is expected to resume on Monday April 29, 2013 at 09:00 GMT.
Below is a timeline of some of the activities as they happened in court
15:35 – Lawyer Quarshie Idun requests for the court to be adjourned to a later date at the convenience of the President of the Court.
15:30 – Quarshie Idun quizzes Dr Bawumia on some of the modalities expected to be adhered to during the election.
Issues relating to lodging of complaints, training of agents among others.
15:00 – For the past one hour cross examinations of Dr Bawumia has proceeded as per the rules of the court.
Philip Addison has raised an objection to the tendering of some pink sheets by Lawyer Quarshie Idun as evidence.
He is arguing that the evidence should have been attached to their affidavits
13:55 – The last comments on the withdrawn documents covering list of verified stations in Lollads area have been expunged from the records of the court.
13:53 – Philip Addison prays for the court to expunge from the records the witness’ evidence on the withdrawn document
13:51 – Quarshie Idun withdraws the document after some debate
13:48 – Philip Addison rises and objects to the tendering of a document by Quarshie Idun
13:42 – Lawyer Quarshie Idun resumes cross examination of Dr Bawumia after a short recess.
12:32 – Court on short recess. Hearing resumes at 13:30 GMT
11:40 – Cross examination continues. Lawyer for the EC quizzes Dr Bawumia, Lawyer for the petitioners.
11:28 – The objection from Philip Addison upheld by 6 to 3 vote by the Judges.
11:20 – Philip Addison however objects to the tendering of the document on grounds of relevance and among others.
11:13 – Pink sheet for the polling station where Dr Bawumia voted is being tendered by Quarshie Idun.
11:05 – Please answer the question and do not provide extra commentary – Lawyer Quarshie Idun tells Dr Bawumia
10:55 – “My Lord’s, there are many ways to kills a cat” – Dr Bawumia in response to Quarshie Idun’s assertions on certain anomalies recorded to which the petitioners were able to produce only one piece of evidence.
Dr Bawumia however notes that there are 11,138 more examples of the anomalies involving the padding of votes of the first respondent.
10:53 – Justice Atuguba accepts that the documents Quarshie idun intends to submit be provisionally accepted on condition of production of the original document.
10:45 – Philip Addison raises objections to some figures submitted by Quarshie Idun and says his team will not accept it.
He indicates that he is unsure of their authenticity.
10:32 – Unless the counsel has answers he wants the witness to use, he should allow the witness to continue – Philip Addison
He was responding to questions raised by Lawyer Quarshie Idun about the way in which Dr Bawumia, when asked a question, went beyond the scope of the question in his answers.
10:16 – Dr Bawumia’s reference to bribery in his commentary raises the eyebrows of Tony Lithur who calls for it to be expunged from the records of the court.
Philip Addison disagrees and questions why Tony Lithur is raising such an objection since it is not his cross examination.
10:05 – “It is not correct that there have been duplicates in my analysis” – Dr Bawumia tells Quarshie Idun in response to questions relating to data on analysis submitted by the petitioners regarding the Ashanti Region.
10:03 – Cross examination begins with Lawyer Quarshie Idun questioning Dr Bawumia.
10:00 – Lawyers for both petitioners and respondents introduce their teams to the court.
Background
The hearing of the election petition seeking to annul the results of the 2012 general election resumes on Thursday, April 25.
Cross-examination continued on Day 6 of the hearing of the substantive case and saw lawyer Tony Lithur closing his cross-examination. He quizzed the second petitioner on the issues surrounding over-voting and voting without biometric verification among others.
Lawyer for the the Electoral Commission (EC) Quarshie Idun also commenced his cross-examination of the witness Dr. Bawumia.
He questioned Bawumia on the EC’s guidelines for the election, the role of polling agents and the process of special voting, among other things.
One major issue that came under contention was the matter “rogue or unknown” polling stations, to which the petitioners had indicated that they had not sent any polling agents.
Lawyer Quarshie Idun submitted into evidence letters he claimed were from the petitioners to some polling agents to man the “rogue or unknown” polling stations.
Source: GhanaTv
