Supreme Court grants NDC joinder application

The Supreme Court has granted the application by the National Democratic Congress seeking to be joined to the election petition filed by the New Patriotic Party.

Presided over by Mr Justice William Atuguba, the court by a 6-3 majority, ruled to allow the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to join a petition challenging the declaration of President John Dramani Mahama as winner of the election.

On January 16, 2013, lead counsel for the NDC, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, moved the motion for joinder and prayed the court to allow his client to join the petition as a respondent because the name and the symbol of the NDC were displayed against President Mahama’s photograph, adding that it would “advance the interest of justice” if the NDC was made to join the petition as respondents.

Opposing the motion, one of the lawyers for the petitioners, Mr Philip Addison, said the motion for joinder would delay the trial and, therefore, draw back the purpose of the new Supreme Court rules aimed at expediting the hearing of petitions challenging results of presidential elections.

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