Tema East MP: Electoral Commission’s Lawyers Are “Lazy”

The Tema East Member of Parliament of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has labelled lawyers for the Electoral Commission as “lazy” due to their inability to comply with the Supreme Court’s order that it files a written response “within five days from the service of petitioners’ case.”

The Electoral Commission in a motion filed on its behalf by its solicitors, Lynes Quashie-Idun and Co, prayed the court to vary its April 2, 2013 order which directed respondents in the petition to file their written affidavits within five days from the service of petitioners’ affidavits on them.

The EC prayed the court to allow it and the other respondents to file their evidence in the form of affidavits after the petitioners have closed their case in the trial, which will commence on April 16, 2013.

The court however on Wednesday by a unanimous decision rejected the EC’s request, stating that it lacked merit.

This notwithstanding, Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus Glover, wondered why the legal team of the EC couldn’t imitate the hardwork of the NPP when they were piecing together their evidence to support the petition.

He also questioned the reasons why the lawyers declined to respond in court when the court made the order.

“The period when the Judges gave that order, were they not in court? Did they rise up to make a case against the order being given by the Supreme Court Judges that anybody who knows will testify, you must put on a paper in a form of an affidavit? You swear. They were all sitting down comfortably in the court. So, if you knew you had contrary view to these orders, you have to rise on your feet”, emphasizing that if the EC legal team could not do this, “then, they are lazy lawyers.”

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana