Ghana : Election Petition to be Broadcast Live

There would be a live television and radio broadcast of the landmark electoral petition case which hearing of the substantive matter will begin on Tuesday April 16. The National broadcaster, GTV and Radio Ghana would be allowed to survey a set up 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 contesting the declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as the winner of the December 2012 presidential polls begins at the Supreme Court in Accra on Tuesday. The petitioners are expected to call their first witness/and or witnesses on 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. continued