PINK SHEETS SERIAL NUMBERS IRRELEVANT , THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH COLLATION AND DECLARATION OF RESULTS

By Felix Engsalige Nyaaba

Accra, Tuesday June 3, 2013

The Returning Officer of the 2012 presidential election, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, yesterday continued his evidence in-chief and told the court that the classical sources of defining over voting relied basically on the registers which is the primary sources of number of persons qualified to vote at a particular polling station, but not the number of ballot papers in the ballot box.

“My Lords, I cannot per say know what is over voting, but the classical sources of demining over voting is the register, over voting is not limited to what is on the pink sheet, it goes beyond that,” he pointed out.

Over Voting

He said  it was not entirely correct for the petitioners to relied on what is 0n the pink sheets to define what is over voting, adding over voting is when the total number of ballot papers in the box  has exceeded the total number of persons registered and qualified to vote at a particular polling station.

According to him, he did not know where the star witness for the petitioners, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, got his definition from, saying the petitioners limited themselves to what was on the pink sheets and that the entire pink sheet must be read through before drawing conclusion.

 Dr Afari-Gyan further explained that, if ballot papers of votes cast at polling station exceeded the number of ballots issued to the polling station, it is further to cross-check the serial number of the ballots issued to the polling station and when it is found that one or two ballots are part of the serial numbers, the primary source would be the register to determine whether the votes were indeed over the number of persons eligible to vote in that polling station.

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He informed the court that, even though there was no definite definition of over voting any where, per his experience, it has always been determined by the register and that of the ballot serial number.

These two categories, he pointed out, were classified as the primary definition of over voting and not as what the petitioners relied on the face of the pink sheets, saying there could be errors in the entering of the figures on the results booklet, also known as pink sheet.

The voter register of an alleged over voting polling was tendered, but was vehemently objected by the petitioners’ counsel, Philip Addison, on the ground that the EC did not plead in their responses to the affidavit to rely on those documents.

Duplicate Serial Numbers

The EC chairman said the serial numbers on the pink sheets has no any legal basis in the election process as the petitioners sought the court to believe.

He said throughout his work as the Chairman of the Electoral Commission and the elections he has supervised across the world, he has never witnessed any where the serial numbers on the pink sheets are used as security in checking election results, adding that the serial number on the pink sheets has nothing to the compilation and declaration of election results.

Dr. Afari-Gyan noted that, part from the ballot papers which has legal backing of its printing and serial number, the pink sheets never have legal support in the terms of its serial numbers, adding that the serial numbers seen on the pink sheets are numbers given by the company that printed them and the EC has no control over its production.

“My Lords, there is no law or constitution, or Instrument, or Act  of parliament or statutory backing serial numbers on pink sheets, the serial numbers on the pink sheets are being given by the firm that printed them and the EC has no control over it, as alleged as irregularities by the petitioners,” he noted.

Biometric Verification Machines

With regard to the use of biometric verification of voters, the EC boss told the court that, all voters who passed through the voting process were verified and captured by the verification devices which he said could be the primary source of confirming as to the number of persons voted without the devices.

Dr. Afari-Gyan further said when the commission received the petition on the allegation of persons voting without going through the BVD, it printed out the information on those machines and it was evident that people who voted at those polling stations had been properly verified as against the allegation by the petitioners.

However, when lead counsel for the EC, Mr. James Quarshie-Idun, sought to tender the information from the BVD machines as evidence, the petitioners’ lawyer objected to the tendering of the document.

According to Philip Addison, the document that EC sought to tender was not in evidence as it never pleaded in its affidavit in response to the petitioners that it will tender those documents.

He described the tendering of the information from the BVD as ‘ambush litigation’ and improper since the EC never attached those evidence in their case before the court.

The objection by Mr. Addison was over ruled by a majority of 7-2 panel of the Supreme Court and allowed the document to be tendered as evidence before the court.

The petitioners are alleging that 535,723 voters voted without biometric verification and are accordingly calling for the annulment of those votes.

Cancellation of Some Poling Station Results

On the issue of allegation by the petitioners that the EC ordered for cancellation of results in some polling stations, the Dr. Afari-Gyan said  apart from one polling station, precisely Berekum Roman Catholic Church polling station result, which was brought to his notice, he had never received information on the others.

He said the he later heard through the petition that some polling stations results in  the Ashanti region, Brong Ahafo, Eastern and Northern regions were cancelled due to over voting and voting without biometric verification device, but added that the results from those four polling stations could not have affected the outcome of the election.

According to the him,  some of the polling station results disputed were in connection with parliamentary and that in those areas, President John Mahama won the presidential election, adding that if the results were even added to that of Nana Akufo-Addo,  it would not have changed.

Dr. Afari-Gyan noted that, if the results were in favour or against John Mahama, he could still be in the lead, saying Mahama’s results could have moved from 50.70% to 50.71, while Nana Akufo-Addo’s reduced from 47.74% to 47.73%, and therefore the cancellation of those results, mathematically, has no chance of changing the election.

22 unknown polling stations

As to whether the allegation of non-existence of 22 polling stations during the polls, the EC chairman said the petitioners had changed their allegation on several occasions and attributed their complaints to lack of understanding of the election process.

According to Dr. Afari-Gyan, the EC after compiling the voter register, made copies to all parties including the NPP and wondered why a biggest political party like NPP could be experiencing such minor problems.

He said the petitioners have wrongfully coded and named the polling stations which they found it difficult to identify the polling station and therefore labeled them as unknown polling stations.

He said all polling stations could be identified by their names and code numbers, but in the case where the name or code could not be properly seen or spelt, either of the two could be used.

Objection of Documents from EC

Lead counsel for the petitioners, Philip Addison, yesterday engaged in a heated argument with the EC counsel, James Quarshie-Idun over the tendering of some documents from the EC as evidence to support their case.

The EC lead counsel had asked the witness to go through some polling stations that have been alleged by the petitioners of over voting which have been disputed by the three respondents, President John Mahama lawyers, the EC and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

However, during cross-examination of Johnson Asiedu Nketia by the petitioners, he disagreed with the petitioners over some figure of over voting in a pink sheet.

According to Asiedu Nketia, the result on the pink sheets was 673 , while the total number of persons qualified to vote on the register was 114, which he said was not correct, but the petitioners maintained that it was over voting.

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Following that, the EC brought the register of that polling station to settle the matter and to prove the petitioners wrong by comparing the register which is the primary sources of information on the pink sheet.

But lead counsel for the petitioner disagreed on the grounds that, the EC was passing their back with documents on surprises and that it amounted to ambush litigation.

In response,  Mr.  Quarshie-Idun disputed the objection by the petitioners counsel and said the document was an important document which served as the primary document with the information to assist the court in ascertaining the true figure as to the issue of over voting.

He said the petitioners used the errors on the face of the pink sheets to make their case and that the register would best serve the interest of the court and for the public to know the truth of the matter on over voting.

Tony Lithur and Tsatsu Tsikata, lead counsels for the president and NDC respectively supported the EC, saying that the register would best serve the interest of justice since the petitioners are in court wanting to annul over 4 million voters.

Errors can occur

Dr. Afari-Gyan explained that the law required aspects of the Statement of Poll and Declaration of Result for the Office of President, also known as pink sheet, to be filled before the commencement of poll on election day and indicated that, if not, there was  an error.

Led by Mr. Quarshie-Idun  the Chairman of the EC said the bio-data of some voters were lost although the daily print-out clearly indicated they had been captured by the biometric machine during the registration process.

To avoid disenfranchising those people on voting day, he explained that the EC had proposed to issue out form 1C to enable such persons to vote but a decision was taken by the political parties that the forms were abandoned.

He explained presiding officers would have been required to issue out the forms to potential voters whose bio-data had been lost on the biometric machine but had been previously issued with voter identity cards.

Following the decision of the political parties, he stated, the electoral officials were asked not to use the C3 section of the pink sheets but for some reason they ended up entering numbers to indicate persons voted without undergoing biometric verification.

He said filling out that portion would amount to error but stated that, there was the need for an analysis to find out if there was actually an error or not.

According to the EC Chairman, he preferred that the number 0 to be written at the spaces for C3 because, anyone can put a figure there.

The Petition

The hearing of the substantive petition started April 17, 2013, and so far Dr Bawumia has testified on behalf of the petitioners and has been cross-examined by counsel for President Mahama, the EC and the NDC.

Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia,  the General Secretary of the NDC, has also given evidence on behalf of the NDC and President Mahama and has since been cross- examined by the other parties in the case.

The petitioners have alleged that presidential election was characterized by massive irregularities and malpractices which amounted to statutory violation of election process and are therefore seeking the court to annul over four million votes involving 11,138 polling stations nationwide.

The case continues today with Dr. Afari-Gyan still in the witness box.