Supreme Court panel chides errant lawyers
The President of the Supreme Court Election Petition panel, Justice William A. Atuguba, on Thursday cautioned lawyers to be circumspect in the comment they make on the case.
He said it is baffling that some lawyers are more committed to the course of their political parties than their own profession, which is their life.
Justice Atuguba gave the caution in addition to comments made by Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, Counsel for the third respondent and Justice Jones Dotse that some lawyers and political commentators are going about misrepresenting facts in the election petition.
He said the legal profession is very important to the country’s democracy and advised members to keep it as sacrosanct as possible.
He said the presidency for now is at stake due to what happens at the bench and the bar.
Mr Philip Addison, Counsel for the Petitioners in a cross-examination made reference to the evidence by Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, Commissioner of the Electoral Commission (EC) that the Commission lost some data during the compilation of the voters register.
He asked the witness if the anomaly was rectified before the voters register was exhibited.
Dr Afari Gyan said it was during the exhibition that the EC noticed that it had lost the data.
When asked by Mr Addison if the people whose name did not appear in the provisional register show up during exhibition.
Dr Afari Gyan said no but explained that since it was not the fault voters that their names did not appear in the register the EC had to take steps to bring back the lost data into the register.
He said EC undertook a special registration exercise to bring back the lost data into the register.
He said an estimated 11,000 people were registered as a result of the anomaly.
Dr Afari Gyan also confirmed that the voters register given to the parties stood at 14,310,680 and not the 14,031,793 as stated by Mr Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of National Democratic Congress in his evidence.
He said the EC also gave a figure of 13,917,366 as the figure on the provisional register.
Dr Afari Gyan however confirmed that the registration of foreign voters shot up from 13,917,366 to 14,158,890.
Mr Addison handed Dr Afari Gyan the EC’s own pleadings and asked the witness to read.
Mr Addison said when the EC was asked to supply information on data of voters who constituted the difference of 241,544 the Commission provided a little over 2,000 names.
Dr Afari Gyan however said only705 people were registered in the missions.
Mr Addison probed further by presenting 51 names which were repeated in the list of foreign voters supplied to the petitioners.
Dr Afari Gyan replied by saying only 15 names were repeated.
Mr Addison took the witness through the list of 51 repeated names , which comprised people with same names; same sex, same age, same locations but different voter identity cards.
Dr Afari Gyan confirmed that the names were repeated and that one person had two different voter IDs.
The case is adjourned to Monday 10.
Source: GNA