By
Felix Engsalige Nyaaba
Accra, Tuesday April 23, 2013
Dr. Mahamdu Bawumia, the star witness and second
petitioners in the ongoing election petition case at the Supreme Court
yesterday admitted that there are several errors in the evidence they presented
to the court seeking for the nullification of 11,138 polling station results of
the 2012 elections.
The witness who made the admission during his second
day of cross examination by Mr. Tony Lithur, lead counsel for President John
Mahama , told the court that even though
there were systematic errors in the face of some of the exhibits tendered
before the court, those errors could not affect the case.
Asked by Mr Lithur, as to whether those consistent errors
were not deliberately made to shore up the number of allegation in order to
deceive the court, the witness answered in the negative saying that the data analyses
of the result before the court were substantially accurate and that the errors have
no legal effects on their case.
Among the
many errors admitted by Dr,Bawumia were the use of parliamentary results pink sheet as
exhibit for presidential result, use of more than one polling station pink
sheet for two different exhibit numbers and wrongful coding of polling station
codes as illegal polling stations.
Mr. Lithur
asked the witness why the parliamentary results pink was found and used as
exhibit in the case, the witness said it was an error and that the error was
not deliberate.
22
Illegal Polling Stations
On the issue of allegation that 22 polling station
were created illegally for the election, the witness said they could not identified
those polling station numbers in the EC
official register and that since it was
not provided adequately, they presumed them to be illegal ones.
But when the
defence counsel put it to him that the polling stations were part of the
official polling station that were used and that all political parties,
including the NPP polling Agents were present in those station, the witness
said the polling agent could not detect the illegality or validity of a polling
station.
He further
admitted that their party polling agents were not vigilant during the polls,
but added that the inability of their polling agents to identify illegality of
a polling station could not affect the case.
It was
identified and confirmed by him that, the alleged 22 polling station that are not part in the EC original
registers where voting took place pink
sheets were all also endorsed by polling
agents of the NPP.
Over
voting Allegation
When counsel for the respondents tendered several
pink sheet used by the petitioners as over voting, Dr. Bawumina admitted using more than one pink sheet for two
different exhibits to the court, but maintain that the counting was done one
only one pink sheet.
He told the court the caused of the duplication of
the pink sheets as exhibit was as a result of the use of both manual and
electronic concurrently to generate the exhibits to the court.
He further denied that the petitioners used the
duplication pink sheets to soar up the number to deceive the court to make
their case.
The witness yesterday drew a laughter in court when
he refereed to a none signed colon of a pink sheet as zero, adding that in his
own interpretation of over voting where
the total number of ballots issued is not recorded , those votes were
considered to be over voting.
Voting
Without Biometric Device.
It was
established by counsel for the respondent that where the petitioners alleged
that some polling stations recorded a number of voters who did not go through
the biometric device verification machines was totally wrong.
According to counsel, many of the pink sheets that
have been used as exhibits before the court were duplicated and marked as exhibits
of evidence to the court.
Dr. Bawumia
also confirmed to the court of
using duplicate pink sheet for different exhibits for where voting took place without biometric
verification machines , but denied that
it was a deliberate attempt to deceive the court to make their case and added that the figures in their analysis were
used only ones on each pink sheet.
Number
of Polling station Petitioned
The issue of the number of polling station
petitioned before the court yesterday became a contention between the witness
and respondents counsel as the witness kept on changing the answers to the pink
sheet allegation.
Tsatsu
Tsikata
Following the inconsistency on the part of the
witness, Dr. Bawumia, the lead counsel for the NDC, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, asked
the court to order for an independent verification body to verify the number of
pink sheet the petitioners have brought to the court.
The petitioners have amended their petitions from
11,916 to 11,842 and are now battling the case on 11,138 polling stations, but
have since provided evidence on only 8,621 polling stations.
For that, Mr.
Tsiakata saids since the petitioners have been amending their petitions, with regards
to the number of polling station in contention and both parties were not clear
as to the actual number of polling station it was proper for the court to order
for independent verification body to
examine the pink sheet before the court.
He said such verification would help narrow down the
case as to the number of polling station results are been disputed in court.
Tony
Lithur
Counsel for the president associated himself with
Tsikata request and said the witness was inconsistent as to which polling station results on pink sheet
are been exhibited.
He noted that the petitioners have reduced the
number of polling station to 11,138 but have only provided evidence on only
8,621 polling stations that it was proper the court order for independent
verification body to examine the result pink sheets.
EC
Lawyer.
Lead counsel for the EC, Mr. James Quashie-Idun
associated himself with the request by Tsikata. Adding that the record must be
set straight to erase any doubt on the number of polling stations pink sheet
that the petitioners are seeking to be nullified.
Philip
Addision
Lead counsel
for the petitioner disagreed and said
the position of the number of polling station have been made clear and that
they have since led evidence on those polling station only.
According g to him, if the respondent want
independent verification body, it would be proper the court equally order for
the auditing of the entire presidential results, adding that the respondent
should strict themselves to the number of the polling station they have
responded to.
Court
Overruled
After back
and forth argument over the number of polling station in contention, the court
retired to chambers and came back with a ruling that the number of polling
station have been determined and that there was no any contention as to which
polling station results is being disputed.
According to the court the record before it has
clearly shown that all parties have complied with its directives and have also
filed their respondents and that there was no need of independent verification
body.
The court therefore
overruled the request by the respondents for an independent verification body
to determine the number of polling station pink sheets should be nullify as prayed by the
petitioners.
The case has been adjourned to today for
continuation of cross examination by defends counsel on Dr. Bawumia.
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