Ghana opposition condemns court's election timeline

Lawyers for Ghana's opposition leader John Mahama say the timeline for the court case addressing their concerns over December's election is unfair. 

On Wednesday, Ghana’s Supreme Court set the date for the hearing of an election petition filed by the opposition seeking to annul the election result over irregularities. 

All parties must file their witness statements by Thursday afternoon and the Supreme Court will begin the main hearing on 26 January.

The Supreme Court said the strict timeline was to enable the hearing of the petition within 42 days as prescribed by law. 

But lawyers for Mr Mahama argue that justice should not be sacrificed for speed.

They had applied for a review of the court’s decision to dismiss their request for the electoral commission to answer questions about the process of declaring results. 

They had also applied for original copies of the statement of polls which contains constituency results.

This article originally appeared on BBC News

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