A member of the Legal team for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba says for the Supreme Court’s recommended seven-day time frame for filing an election petition to be recognized, Ghana’s constitution will need to be amended.

According to him, the Election Manual is subjugated by an entrenched constitutional provision that makes room for a 21-day preparation period and hence can only be recognized by way of a referendum.

“If they insist that it is an amendment, then I find it difficult to appreciate that because the whole of Chapter 8 of Article 64 is an entrenched clause, and so we’d need some form of referendum to have that change from 21 to seven days. So as we speak now, it is still the law, and that Manual cannot amend that provision,” he noted.

His comment follows a revelation by the Chairperson of the Election Manual Review Committee, Justice Jones Dotse, that the Supreme Court has made a decision to deal with any suit challenging the presidential election within a maximum of 42 days.

Pursuant to this, all political party’s have been advised to submit petitions – if any – within seven days after electoral results have been declared.

But speaking to Joy News Tuesday, Mr. Amaliba expressed disapproval of the development, stating that more time is needed to present quality case in Court.

“It depends on how quickly a petitioner can assemble their evidence. We go to court with evidence, and so the framers of the constitution thought that 21 days was enough to put together evidence after the results of an election have been declared. And so I think that in order to not stampede a petitioner to go to court without evidence, the 21 days is still the best”.

Although he was in favour of the Court’s intention to prevent a repeat of the 2012 election petition which dragged on for about 8 months, Mr. Amaliba objected to the proposed 42-day trial period.

He explained that the prescription denies a lawyer ample time to effectively prepare and handle a petition.