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Lawyers for parties in the petition challenging the legitimacy of President John Dramani Mahama are deadlocked on issues to be set out for determination by the Supreme Court. The court, on March 14, 2013, gave the legal teams in the case seven days to sit and narrow issues for determination and indicate the areas they did not agree on for the court to resolve. However, barely seven days after the court�s directive, lawyers for the petitioners, President Mahama, the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) met, deliberated and hit a deadlock. Following the standoff, the legal team for the petitioners has written to the registrar of the Supreme Court to indicate the outcome of the meeting and prayed the registry to set a date to enable the parties to appear before the court for resolution. The letter, dated March 19, 2013, signed by Mr Akoto Ampaw of Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co. and addressed to the registrar of the Supreme Court, stated, �This is formally to notify the Supreme Court that, following the order of the court, counsel for all the parties met in an attempt at reaching an agreement on the memorandum of issues as set out in the applications for direction and further directions. �We, however, regret to inform the court that with the exception of the relatively few number of issues agreed on, we were unable to reach a substantial agreement on the issues.� �We would, accordingly, be grateful if a short date could be fixed for the parties to appear in court to take directions as to the issues and the mode of trial in order to expedite trial of the petition,� the letter continued, adding, �We will, at the hearing, give notice to the court with respect to the issues we managed to reach agreement on.� The letter was copied to the lawyer for President Mahama, Mr Tony Lithur; counsel for the EC and counsel for the NDC, Mr Samuel Codjoe. Lawyers for parties in the case, as a sign of respect to the court, were tight-lipped on the issues they agreed and disagreed on. They are, however, expected to announce their positions to the court when the registrar formally communicates a date to them to appear in court.