The Supreme Court hearing the election petition brought by three leading members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has set 16th April 2013 to begin sitting. The court has therefore asked the petitioners in the case to file affidavit of witnesses they intend to call. The 2012 presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, his running mate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Chairman of the NPP Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the results of the December 7 presidential elections, and requested the court to annul 4,670,504 of the valid votes cast during the election at 11,916 polling stations where alleged irregularities took place. Early on, the Supreme Court narrowed the essence of the petition to two, based on which they would give their ruling after parties in the case have advanced their arguments. The court would first establish whether or not there were statutory violations, irregularities, omissions and malpractices in the 2012 general elections. Joy FM’s Anny Osabutey reported from court today that the court would also ascertain whether violations, irregularities, omissions and malpractices affected the results of the election. In the last adjourned date, the parties were asked to go and agree on the issues but unfortunately they could not, which compelled the judges to use their discretion, narrowing down the issues to two. The parties were however happy with the decision, our reporter in court said. Lead counsel for the petitioners, Philip Addison asked if witnesses called to give oral testimony would be allowed to use power point presentation, but Justice William Atuguba replied that the court does not have the set up for such presentations. Meanwhile, the court in a 6-3 decision has thrown away a request by the Electoral Commission (EC) that the petitioners should provide further and better particulars on 28 locations where they alleged that voting took place without authority.