Counsel for the petitioners in an election petition filed before the Supreme Court, challenging the legitimacy of declaring President John Mahama winner of the December 2012 presidential election, has described as "Communist-imperial tactics" the delay on the part of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in filing their written submission on the scheduled date, as ordered by the court.

According to lead counsel for the petitioners, Mr. Philip Addison, the NDC legal team had taken some inspiration and feasted on the petitioners' written address, as their faces showed that they had not had any sleep throughout the night.

Mr. Addison was expressing the petitioners' disgust yesterday in court to an oral submission made by lead counsel for the NDC, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, seeking permission to file its written submission, after it missed out on the deadline of July 30, 2013, set by the court two weeks ago. Lead counsel for the petitioners noted that the NDC legal team could have come by a formal application before the deadline, if they could not meet scheduled time of submitting their written address.

Mr. Tsikata, who came under fire from the petitioners' counsel and the bench for not obeying the orders of the court, took personal responsibility for the delay, as he needed to attach appendices from the court to his submission, which could not be completed by the close of the deadline given.

However, the court, presided over by Justice William Atuguba, unanimously waived the default, and admitted the address, filed in the morning of yesterday, July 31, 2013, since it would benefit the court.

The court further adjourned sitting to August 7, 2013, to enable counsel for the parties to make oral submissions based on their respective addresses filed before the court, and during which necessary additions and clarifications could be highlighted within a time frame of 30 minutes each.

The oral submissions from parties in the case would precede a date to be fixed by the court for final judgment in the election petition. Other panel members include Justices Julius Ansah, Sophia Adinyira, Rose Owusu, Jones Dotse, Anin-Yeboah, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Sule Gbadegbe and Vida Akoto-Bamfo.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tsikata emphatically noted that his application was not to take advantage of the petitioners' address, as he had not yet seen their written submission. The counsel came under intense fire from the bench for the delay, expressing their rage.

"We do not make orders and set timelines for nothing," a member of the bench strictly noted, as he further pointed out that if the NDC could not comply with the deadline given to submit their written address, they could have come for a formal application before the end of the deadline. Currently, all the parties have filed their written addresses, with the petitioners submitting theirs both electronically and in hardcopies of over 170 pages of two volumes with graphic illustrations.

In the addresses submitted before the court, the parties are expected to argue out all the relevant issues put out before the court as part of their evidence, and further stage a convincing ground in making their assertions acceptable to the court, in accordance to the relevant existent rules in the country.

Several thousands of evidence, made up of polling station results forms (pink sheets), electoral collation forms, electoral regulations, oral evidence from witnesses and affidavits among others, had been produced by both petitioners and respondents in the case as they strive to make their case before the court.

The 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, his running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and Party National Chairman Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey are in court challenging the declaration of John Mahama as winner in the 2012 presidential election by the Electoral Commission (EC).

The petitioners have sued John Mahama and the EC, but the NDC, as a political party on whose ticket John Mahama stood as presidential candidate, was later made a party to the case, after the court accepted their request to join the issue before it.

While the petitioners have alleged electoral irregularities of over-voting, voting without biometric verification, presiding officers not signing polling station result forms, and duplicate serial numbers of pink sheets during the December 2012 presidential election, the respondents in the case, on the other hand, have rebutted the allegations, and noted that the election, so declared, was credible.

Issues set out for trial, which possibly form part of the final ruling of the court, include whether or not there were statutory violations, omissions, irregularities and malpractices in the conduct of the December 2012 elections, and whether or not the said violations, omissions, irregularities and malpractices (if any) affected the outcome of the results.

The petitioners are asking the court to annul 4, 670,504 votes, representing votes cast in 11,916 polling stations across the country, for what they termed" gross and widespread irregularities" recorded during the December 2012 poll.

Meanwhile, the petitioners have currently reduced the number of polling stations they are challenging to 11,138 out of the 26,002 polling stations nation-wide, and further requesting the court to pronounce Nana Akufo-Addo winner of the December 2012 presidential election. However, the respondents have led evidence through the Chairman of the EC, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan and the NDC General Secretary; Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia dismissing the claims of the petitioners, noting that there was no basis for the petitioners request being granted.

They maintained that the declaration of President Mahama as the winner of the polls was just as the elections were generally free, fair and transparent.