Dr.
Kwadwo Afari Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission on Tuesday told
the Supreme Court while being cross examined that the errors which
affected the conduct of the elections and which are evident on the face
of pink sheets from polling stations across the country, were not
corrected before the declaration of John Mahama as winner of the
Presidential elections was made.
Dr. Afari Gyan conceded to this
fact on the fourth day of his cross examination by lead witness of the
petitioners, Counsel Philip Addison.
In cross examining the EC
Chairman, the lead counsel of the petitioners handed Dr. Afari Gyan
thirty (30) pink sheets on which incidents of voting without
verification occurred at those polling stations.
As part of the
sections of the pink sheet is the ballot accounting section which, among
others, requires the presiding officer to indicate the number of ballot
papers issued to voters on the polling station register (C1) and the
number of voters out of this number who voted without being verified by
the use of the biometric verification device (C3) (C3 states: What is
the number of ballots issued to voters verified by the use of Form 1C
(but not by the use of BVD)).
When confronted with the pink
sheets on which part of the voters at the particular polling stations
were recorded to have voted without being verified, Dr. Afari Gyan’s
initial explanation was that the C1 and C3 sections ought to be summed
up to find the total number of people who were given ballots at the
polling station.
However, this was sharply countered by Counsel
Philip Addison who indicated to the witness that that would lead to
double counting as the number of persons who voted without being
verified were also on the polling station register and thus included in
the C1 section. The explanation given by Counsel Philip Addison was
supported by Justice Baffoe Bonnie and Justice Dotse.
However,
Dr. Afari Gyan further explained that the numbers indicated in the C3
sections were not on the voters’ register and that they should be taken
separately from the entries made in the C1 sections.
When pushed
further, Dr. Afari Gyan shifted his position and concluded that all
such entries in the C3 part of the pink sheet arose out of errors and
that the entries should not have been placed at the C3 section.
This
reasoning by Dr. Afari Gyan prompted Justice Baffoe Bonnie to inquire
from the EC Boss where those entries should have been placed if it
should not have been entered in the C3 section as the entries in the C3
section were completely different from all other numbers filled in on
the pink sheets and thus couldn’t be said to be trans-positional errors.
Dr. Afari Gyan, as usual, failed to also indicate where in his view
those entries should have been entered.
Indeed, Dr. Afari Gyan
proceeded to state that the whole Pink Sheet and especially the ballot
accounting section was designed in error.
Counsel Philip Addison
inquired from Dr. Afari Gyan if the Commission and himself as returning
officer for the Presidential elections corrected/rectified the errors
before the declaration was made especially as the EC Boss throughout his
evidence in chief and cross examination had blamed all the
irregularities on the face of the pink sheets on errors which arose in
the elections.
Dr. Afari Gyan in answering stated that not a
single error was corrected before he made the declaration and that he
did not do that because he had no access to any pink sheet. |
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