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Justice Can’t Be Sacrificed For Technicalities – LMVCA

The Let My Vote Count Alliance has called on the Supreme Court to stamp its authority and “stop this puppetry of technicalities orchestrated though the joint enterprise of lawyers for John Mahama and the NDC, using the lawyer for the Commission as the convenient, ever-willing instrument of such blatant, unpatriotic evil.”
Expressing their displeasure at this new strategy chosen by the respondents, at a press conference yesterday, the group said the respondents were solely relying on mislabellings on the face of the pinksheets to ensure justice is not served.
David Asante, spokesperson for the group, explained that this strategy is intended to reduce this important election petition to be determined not by the substance of the evidence which the petitioners have brought for adjudication but the form by which those exhibits of evidence were filed and/or served on the respondents.
This strategy, according to Mr Asante, has resulted in frustration building up among millions of Ghanaians who are thinks “that the whole essence of this case about our democracy, our votes, our governance, is being forced down to how the evidence was packaged and served rather than what is contained in the evidence.”
Furthermore, David Asante maintained that this latest strategy of respondents alleging without proof that they have not been served with exhibits which petitioners want to cross-examine the chairman of the EC on is beginning to test the confidence that the people have in the judicial system.
Mr Asante reminded the Supreme Court that it was because of the people’s frustration with technicalities that led the Kenyan Opposition to ignore the legal option in 2008, leading to the kind of violence which the world never thought could take place in one of Africa’s most stable nations.
To this effect, the LMVCA served a notice to the Supreme Court that Ghanaians would not allow the justice that they seek to be denied through the frivolous and vexatious instruments of technicalities like exhibit numbers whether they begin with four zeros or no zeros at all; whether the exhibit number takes us to a polling station in Techiman or Kpandai.
“This case is about what happened at polling stations across the country on December 7 and 8, 2012 and nothing less. That is why the people are saying that the justices must therefore stamp their authority and stop this puppetry of technicalities orchestrated though the joint enterprise of lawyers for John Mahama and the NDC, using the lawyer for the Commission as the convenient, ever-willing instrument of such blatant, unpatriotic evil,” Mr Asante noted.
Describing the lawyers of the respondents (the three masters of technicalities) as “the the Axis of Evil Against Justice”, Mr Asante noted that it is ironic that the very people who set up People’s Tribunals in the 1980s because they thought even the normal technicalities of due process were denying the people justice are now relying on technicalities to deny the nation a true and faithful trial into how the 2012 presidential race was ran.
“Many people simply cannot understand why the judges cannot apply the rules and powers that they have to get respondents to let the court know exactly what exhibits they have or don’t have. This is causing undue delay and the building of frustration among the people as respondents seemingly put all their eggs of victory into the basket of technicalities,” Mr Asante warned.
In light of these developments, Mr Asante is calling all Ghanaians to remain calm and patient and continue to put their faith in the competence of the petitioners’ legal team and in the wisdom of the nine justices.
“We do not expect these experienced men and women, on whose shoulders the fate and destiny of our democracy now sit, to fail us. We will continue to pray for them that they muster the courage and principles of their office, the wisdom, the patriotism and responsibility to do what is right, just and fair,” Mr Asante stressed.
 
Credit:Peacefmonline

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