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After 46 days (since substantive hearing begun) of evidence giving and cross examination of witnesses by both the Petitioners and Respondents, the 2012 election petition which has been pending at the Supreme Court for the past seven months is almost over. The Petitioners and Respondents have been given up to July 30, 2013 to prepare and file their written addresses. �At long last the battle of evidence has ended. So now we are directing both sides to file your addresses simultaneously not later than 30 July�, Justice William Atuguba, president of the nine-member panel announced on Wednesday. Hearing has been adjourned to Wednesday, July 31, 2013 for the judges to ascertain whether the addresses have been filed with the Court�s Registrar. Justice Atuguba further stated that the court will sit on July 31, 2013 when the address filing have closed and give further directions to proceed from there. But before discharging, Dr Afari-Gyan from the witness box, Justice Atuguba sarcastically said, �I hope you are seeing that go to court, go to court is not such an easy thing to say�. This was received with laughter in the courtroom. The Petitioners - Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, his 2012 running mate Dr. Mahamudu and their party�s national Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey - filed to challenge the results of the 2012 presidential poll in the Supreme Court with reason that the election was fraught with too many anomalies which robbed their Candidate of victory. The respondents in the case include President John Mahama, the Electoral Commission and the governing National Democratic Congress. The petitioners alleged that gross and widespread irregularities took place on the face of the pink sheets from 11,842 polling stations. Although they insist they supplied 11,842 pink sheets to prove claims of over-voting, persons voting without undergoing biometric verification, some presiding officers not signing the pink sheets and some polling stations having the same serial numbers, the respondents allege that they were not supplied with 11,842 pink sheets. The petitioners therefore relied on 11,115 pink sheets to make their case for the annulment of more than four million votes. The case has seen various witnesses on both sides including Dr. Bawumia, General Secretary of the NDC, international accounting firm KPMG and EC Chairman Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. In the course of the trial, two people - Managing Editor of the Daily Searchlight Newspaper Ken Kuranchie and a member of the Communication team of the NDC, Stephen Atubiga - were sentenced to separate terms in prison for criminal contempt. Their sentencing for 10 and three days respectively sparked a whole national debate in the media concerning the law of criminal contempt.