The opposition United Democratic Party yesterday filed an application to the Supreme Court for a review of its decision to strike out an election petition brought by the party against president-elect Adama Barrow and the IEC on grounds of technicality.
The UDP’s application for a review is in accordance with section 8 of the Supreme Court Act Cap and Rule 54(c) and (d) of the Supreme Court (Amendment) Rules, 2015 which provides that:
“The Court may review any decision made or given by it on any of the following grounds:(a) exceptional circumstances which have resulted in a miscarriage of justice; (b) discovery of new and important matter or evidence which after the exercise of due diligence was not within the Applicant’s knowledge or could not be produced by him at the time when the decision was given.”
The UDP’s fresh application for a review outlined that there is prima facie case for the court to revisit its ruling of the 28th of December, 2021 in the interest of ensuring that its election petition is “heard and disposed of on its merits and not by some technical side wind that has deprived the Petitioner and its constituents of their rights to a fair hearing.
“We therefore urge this august Court to hold that the Petitioner’s Application discloses sufficient grounds to warrant the leave of the Court to bring a substantive application for review.
We move the Court in terms of the Motion Ex Parte and submit that the prayers ought to be granted in the interest of fair hearing in order to avert a gross miscarriage of justice,” the UDP lawyers prayed in their application. Legal sources told The Standard that once the application is admitted, the Supreme Court will now convene a panel of 7 judges to sit over it.
