LANDMARK ELECTION PETITION: BAWUMIA SPILLS BEANS

Dr. Bawumia enters the courtroom

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday April 18, 2013

The much-awaited landmark election petition finally got underway yesterday with Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; star witness in the case mounting the box to give revealing testimony of what actually transpired during the December 2012 general election.

The running mate to New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo displayed his mathematical acumen when he took his time to explain what the petitioners claim are constitutional violations in the form of irregularities, omissions and malpractices.

He explained it in a simplified language to perhaps the admiration of Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan the Electoral Commission (EC) chairman who was seen chewing gum like someone under severe pressure.

The EC boss was also sighted puffing cigarette within the precincts of the court anytime there was break.

Dr. Afari-Gyan and Amadu Sulley arrive in court

All the petitioners, Nana Akufo-Addo, Dr Bawumia and Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, NPP National Chairman were in court while the respondents were also in court except, President John Mahama, the beneficiary of the alleged electoral fraud.

In his evidence-in-chief, led by Phillip Addison, lead counsel for the three petitioners, Dr. Bawumia who described himself as an Economist told the nine-member Supreme Court justices chaired by Justice William Atuguba that he was in court “on my own behalf and on behalf of the petitioners challenging the declaration of the results by the Electoral Commission in the December 2012 general election.”

Dr. Bawumia who affirmed his faith by the Holy Quran as court rules demand at exactly 10:35am and preferred to stand throughout his testimony said “The evidence we have cannot be supported by the primary documents for the declaration by the 2^nd respondent (EC).”

Counsel (Mr. Addison): Why are you testifying on behalf of the petitioners?

Witness (Dr. Bawumia): “I am one of the petitioners and after the results were declared by the 2^nd respondent, the 1^st petitioner (Nana Akufo-Addo) asked me to lead a committee to investigate issues of violations, irregularities and malpractices.”

He told the court that the team he led investigated ‘thousands’ of Statement of Poll, Results and Declaration of Results Forms aka Pink Sheets” and found numerous constitutional violation, irregularities and malpractices adding “that brought us to this court.”

Nana Akufo-Addo with wife in court

The witness then took his time to explain the layouts of the Pink Sheets, describing it as “a primary official record of the election at the polling stations.”

He said the Pink Sheets are the “records on which basis the 2^nd respondent declared the results of the December 2012 Presidential election.”

Counsel: Can you tell this court what is contained on this (Pink Sheet)? – When he was given a copy.

Witness: The Pink Sheet essentially has three parts. The first part is the statement of poll, the second is the results and the third is the declaration. They have to be consistent and on top of the form you have the three identifiers of the polling station including name, code and serial number of the polling station.

He said the first section of the Pink Sheets has four parts which talks about ballot information which has to be filled by the Presiding Officer before the start of poll, information about the register at the polling station, another part deals with ballot accounting and the final part of the Pink Sheet deals with rejected ballots report which is filled after the end of poll and endorsed.

Dr. Bawumia told the court that the second part of the Pink Sheet is the polling station results where each candidate has his name, votes obtained in words as well as figures.

He said the final part of the Pink Sheet is the declaration where the Presiding Officer is required to sign as well as the party agents at the polling station and it forms the basis for which the EC declare results.

Counsel: Did you make any findings in your analysis and examination of the Pink Sheets?

Witness: We found violations, irregularities and malpractices on the Pink Sheets in the areas of over-voting, voting without biometric verification and in presiding officers or their assistants not signing the sheets before the declaration as required by law.

NDC Chairman Dr. Kwabena Adjei

“We also found irregularities in large numbers of duplicate serial numbers and duplicate polling station codes,” he added.

He said the petitioners also found polling stations which they could not trace to the 26,002 polling stations provided by the 2^nd respondent to the NPP on the face of the pink sheets.

Dr. Bawumia said his team examined around 24,000 Pink Sheets saying “These were the broad irregularities that we found in our examination.”

Over Voting

Counsel: What is Over-voting?

Witness: Over-voting comes in two forms. Essentially, we have a principle of one man one vote. If the total number of votes in the ballot box exceeds the total ballots cast on the face of the Pink Sheets. Over-voting will also arise if the total votes in the ballot box as recorded in the Pink Sheets exceed the total ballots issued to voters.

He said the phenomenon of over-voting was an issue that the EC and in particular its Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan considered crucial in the run up to the election and even declared that any polling station that recorded over-voting was going to be cancelled.

When Dr. Bawumia tried to cite examples to back the issue of over-voting, it was strongly objected to by James Quarshie-Idun, Tony Lithur and later Tsatsu Tsikata, all representing the EC, President Mahama and the NDC respectively, saying the petitioners’ piece of evidence bothered on material facts.

The court after recess, overruled the respondents objection saying that Paragraphs 2 (1) (a) of the petitioners amended statement filed on February 8, 2013 contained issue of over voting and could therefore lead evidence to that effect.

Gloria Akufo addresses the media

With the road cleared, Dr. Bawumia went ahead to display to the court how results in Arabic Basic School Polling Station at Asuokor in the Upper West Akim Constituency as well as Methodist Primary School Polling Station in Tano North, were annulled as instances of over-voting by the EC.

Counsel: Did instances of over-voting have effect on the declared results?

Witness: The results announced by the 2^nd respondent will not hold if the votes from the polling stations where over-voting took place were annulled.

He said none of the candidates would have obtained 50 per cent plus one votes needed to be declared President.

Dr. Bawumia said per their analysis on over-voting alone as a violation, President Mahama should have obtained 49.37 per cent as against Nana Akufo-Addo’s 49.10 per cent.

He said there were 1,826 polling stations where over-voting occurred and the total votes involved were over 700,000 adding “we would like the court to annul these results due to over-voting.”

Voting Without Biometric Verification

Counsel: Explain voting without biometric verification.

Witness: The law requires every voter to go through biometric verification. The fingerprints taken through biometric machines during the biometric registration exercise had to be authenticated with the biometric device.

He said biometric verification was a critical issue in the run up to the election which was hotly debated and a law passed to that effect and on December 5, 2012 at a news conference, Dr. Afari-Gyan made it clear that ‘no biometric verification no vote.’

Counsel: How were you able to find instances of voting without biometric verification?

Witness: The evidence is found on the face of the Pink Sheets. Section 3 C of the Pink Sheet asks that question. We aggregated all the numbers where Biometric Verifications did not tally on the Pink Sheet.

He said 535,723 voters voted without biometric verification in 2,240 polling stations, adding “they have material effects on the results declared by the EC.

Nana Ato Dadzie speaks for the NDC

He said in Bewkai Experimental JHS for instance 294 people voted without biometric verification while in Gambaga Nalerigu,  because  one or two persons did not go through biometric verification, the whole results were cancelled by the EC.

“”In the interest of justice, fairness and non-discrimination, we pray that the court annuls the results in polling stations where there was no biometric verification,” adding “The EC cannot apply different set of rule for one area and another set of rules for another.”

He said that per their analysis, President Mahama should have polled 49.19 per cent as against Nana Akufo-Addo’s 49.34 per cent when instances of voting without biometric was involved.

Pink Sheets With No Signatures

Dr. Bawumia said that instances where there were Pink Sheets without the signatures of Presiding Officers or their Assistants totaled 1,739 polling stations and the total number of votes involved were 705,305.

He cited a polling station in Prestea Huni Valley as one of the numerous polling stations where the Presiding officer or his assistant refused to sign the Pink Sheet.

Dr. Bawumia said on that basis alone, President Mahama would have 49.52 per cent as against 48. 96 per cent of Nana Akufo-Addo.

Same Serial Numbers

The 2^nd petitioner said that they found widespread instances of  polling stations with same serial numbers saying “on the surface, it might look innocuous but after a careful examination, it was a found to be  a major vehicle for the perpetuation of constitutional violation, irregularities and malpractices.”

Counsel: What did you find?

Witness: There were 9,921 polling stations where Pink Sheets had the same serial numbers. The total number of votes amounted to 3,924, 844.”

“The serial number on the Pink Sheet is the only identifier that comes already embossed. Other identifiers can be done with handwriting.”

“You can sit at home and write on the Pink Sheet but you cannot emboss the code on a Pink Sheet.”

He cited Jemakope Polling Station and EP Primary School Polling Station in Tsito where he said they both shared same 0007977 as their polling station code.

“If you look at the cases of over-voting that we presented, 74 per cent were using Pink Sheets of same serial numbers. 74 per cent of 2,240 polling stations where voting took place without biometric verification, the Pink Sheets had the same serial numbers.”

He said that on the issue of signatures “we found out that 75 per cent of the polling stations also had the use of duplicate serial numbers.”

He said the duplicate serial numbers was “a vehicle to operationalize the constitutional violations, irregularities and malpractices.”

He said that if the court annul the results on the basis of same serial numbers, President Mahama’s votes will stand at 41.96 per cent while Nana Akufo-Addo will go to 56.56 per cent.

Same Polling Stations, Same Codes

Dr. Bawumia said that the basis of same polling stations sharing same codes but with different sets of results amounted to 35 polling stations but they were statistically insignificant to affect the results.