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Opinions of Thursday, 9 May 2013

Columnist: Jackson, Margaret

Bawumia’s Understanding Of The Law Is Poor

…Says Tsatsu Tsikata By Margaret Jackson

May 6, 2013

The past vice presidential candidate of the NPP, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia who is in court with two others contesting the results of the 2012 Presidential Election, has repeatedly sought to portray that he is well versed in the electoral laws and the constitution during his cross-examination at the Supreme Court.

But anytime a pointed question on the existing electoral laws is put to him, Bawumia either states that he is unaware of the law, has not read the law or simply dances around the question with his usual talking points.

Why Bawumia is doing this only God knows his motive. But to those who have been following the case intensely, the conclusion has been drawn that Bawumia is making a fool of himself by trying to impress that he knows the electoral laws when in fact he simply does not know it.

That is why in one instance in court on Monday Bawumia was cut off by Tsatsu Tsikata who simply told him that, “Your understanding of the law is poor.” That was when Bawumia instead of answering a simple question concerning the evidence he and others presented in court again sought to impress Tsatsu that he was well versed in law.

Dr Bawumia who has been cautioned on countless of times by the justices to answer questions posed to him under cross-examination instead of giving winding, unrelated and annoying answers, has virtually ignored all the warnings and doing his own thing by always stating emphatically that an illegality has been committed when the justices are yet to determine that. I would have been extremely worried by now if in the witness box I had told the whole world that I did not know of the existence of the guidelines for the conduct of the 2012 elections. And I would have felt deeply humiliated if a copy of the guidelines had been thrust into my hands and forced to read portions in court.

But what amazes me is that even when Bawumia has read a portion in the guidelines that vividly states that if for some reason/s the presiding officer fails to append his/her signature on the pink results sheet, it does not invalidate the results, Bawumia has still not dropped that false notion. Bawumia, still holds on to that view and falsely believe that somehow the justices are going to side with him in the end, and throw away the guidelines by the Electoral Commission.

That is why I have stated time and time again that Bawumia has not got what it takes to win this case for the NPP. Currently, he seems confused and behaves as someone who does not know what he has involved himself in. He may have thought that the whole court proceedings were going to be an academic debate without recourse to the law. It is therefore, no wonder that Bawumia keeps hiding behind his talking points by talking tough on the law when in fact he knows little or nothing about the law and how it works.

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