AFARI-GYAN FUMBLES ...AS ADDISON WINDS UP

The Petitioners leave the court

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Chairman of Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan yesterday appeared to contradict his own evidence with respect to the issue of Special Voting that took place in the December 2012 Presidential Election.

The EC boss backtracked in his evidence that polling stations with the same code do no necessarily mean that special voting took place there.

On Thursday June 11, 2013 when some 16 pairs of pink sheets sharing same Code Numbers were handed over to him during cross-examination in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition, Dr. Afari-Gyan emphatically stated that he knows for a fact that pink sheets in each of the pairs was used for Special Voting but could not tell the court which ones they were.

Yesterday, Philip Addison, lead counsel for the petitioners brought the list of 16 pairs of polling stations once again and tried to test the credibility of the veteran elections administrator, putting it to him that those polling stations could not have been used for special voting as claimed.

In the process, almost all the polling stations suggested to him by Mr. Addison as it was done last Thursday, received what appear to be a ‘u-turn’ response from Dr. Afari-Gyan when he told the nine-member justices hearing the petition that “I did not say that special voting took place in every polling station on this list.”

He however, admitted that those polling stations with duplicate polling station codes all went into his declaration that made the 3^rd respondent’s (National Democratic Congress) candidate John Dramani Mahama as President.

16 Pairs

Mr Addison: While answering questions on this list, you indicated that these polling stations were used for special voting. I’m I right? 

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes my Lords I did.

Mr Addison: Have you had the time to cross check whether indeed some of these polling stations were used for special voting?

Dr Afari-Gyan: I have not gone back specifically to check.

Mr Addison: You have not checked?

Dr Afari-Gyan: Well, I didn’t promise to check.

Mr Addison: I have checked and none of them were used as special voting centers. I am suggesting to you.

Dr Afari-Gyan: I cannot confirm that.

Mr Addison: Now if you look on the list, number 5, it has DA primary Atintan and DA Primary School Ghana Camp.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yeah 5 and 6 yes.

Mr Addison: Now these polling stations are in villages in the Assin North Constituency. I’m I right?

Dr Afari-Gyan: Well I can tell immediately that they are in a particular region but I cannot tell you exactly where they are located in that region.  

Mr Addison: Furthermore they are in villages that do not even have police stations.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords I wouldn’t know that.

Mr Addison: Now I’m suggesting to you that special voting in this constituency took place at Methodist Primary Assin Bereku.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords I have not said that all the polling stations on this list were used for special voting.

Mr Addison: Well we want to be clear that is why we are going through. What is your answer to that?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords it could well have been, I don’t know it off hand.

Mr Addison: Can you tell us the polling stations listed at number 13 and 14?

Dr Afari-Gyan: Number 13 my Lords is Mining Dawn ICT center Mpataba. 14 is Mpataba community center.

Mr Addison: These 2 polling stations are in the Jomoro constituencies.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Well I can tell you that they are in the Western Region.

Mr Addison: Furthermore, no special voting took place at Mpataba.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Well I have not said that special voting place at very polling station on this list.

Mr Addison: Special voting in the Jomoro constituencies took place at Half Assini District Assembly.

NDC gurus

Dr Afari-Gyan: Could well be.

Mr Addison: Can you tell us the polling stations listed at number 15 and 16?

Dr Afari-Gyan:  15 is Canteen Savelugu and 16 is DA Primary school Kpalan.

Mr Addison: Now these two polling stations are in the Savelugu constituency?

Dr Afari-Gyan: They are all in the Northern Region.

Mr Addison: And no special voting took place in either polling stations.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Once again I did not say that special voting took place in every polling station on this list. I said in some cases, there are A and B.

 

Mr Addison: Now I’m further suggesting to you that in Savelugu, special voting took place at the Savelugu Police station.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords may well have been.

Mr Addison:  Can you tell us the stations listed at 17 and 18?

Dr Afari-Gyan: 17 is Adda Primary School A. 18 is Ballobia JHS B.

Mr Addison: Now both these polling stations are in the Navrongo Central constituency?

Dr Afari-Gyan: They are in the Upper East Region.

Mr Addison: And there was no special voting in either polling stations.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords I have not said so.

Mr Addison: Indeed in Navrongo Central special voting took place at the district police station.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords may well have been.

Mr Addison: Lets look at 19 and 20.

Dr Afari-Gyan: 19 is Bullbog and 20 is Bullbog market B.

Mr Addison: Now these two polling stations are in Duusi which is a remote village in the Talensi constituency.

Dr Afari-Gyan: They are in the Upper East region, that is all I know.

Mr Addison: And no special voting took place at either of these polling stations.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords, I have not said so.

Mr Addison: Special voting in the Talensi constituency took place at the Talensi Community Center.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords, may well have been.

Mr Addison: Let us look at number 21 and 22.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords 21 is Nurul Islam Primary B. 22 is Aningazanga JHS.

Mr Addison: Now these polling stations are in the Bolga Central constituency.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Once again they are in the Upper East constituency.

Mr Addison: There was no special voting in either polling stations.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords, I haven’t said so.

Mr Addison: In Bolga Central, special voting took place at the Regional House of Chiefs.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords, it may well have been.

Mr Addison: Dr Afari-Gyan, these polling stations with duplicate polling station codes all went into the declaration made by you.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes. All these polling stations went into the declaration of the results.

NPP Gurus

Extracts from Mampong Reloaded

Mr. Addison again handed to Dr. Afari-Gyan a news register containing the earlier extract of a polling station in Mampong Constituency in the Ashanti Region, a document which the court declined to allow to be tendered in evidence because of issues of authenticity.

The petitioners counsel told the court that he had gone back to do his homework on the extract and sought to tender it this time around.

Mr Addison: the other day I showed you an extract from the voter’s register in the Mampong constituency.

  

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes my Lord you did.

Mr Addison: Now I will like you to take a look at this. You will recall that the extract I showed you the other day as the copy of the register from the Anglican Primary School Mampong.

  

Dr Afari-Gyan: The first one you showed me was not from the Anglican Primary School. At least the cover page did not indicate that.

Mr Addison: Dr Afari-Gyan if you look at the page on which we have the pictures, polling station name is stated.

Dr Afari-Gyan: But on the cover page, these are 2 different places.

 

Mr Addison: I asked a question, can you please answer my question.

Dr Afari-Gyan: I have 2 sets, 2 different sets so so far as the cover page is concerned so you will have to direct me. My Lords, one is 331701 one is 330701.

 

Justice Atuguba: He is talking about the page with the pictures.

Dr Afari-Gyan:  Yes, where the pictures are, the short one is Anglican Primary School Mampong and the one that I have been just given is also Anglican Primary School Mampong.

Mr Addison: If you turn to page 5 on the full register, you will see the same page as is in the extract.

Dr Afari-Gyan:  Yes my Lord, according to this one yes.

Mr Addison:  Again if you look at page 6 on the extract, it conforms to page 6 in the whole register.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes my Lords.

Mr Addison: Now on page 5 of the register, second on the right, you will see a picture with the name Adwoa Gyemfua.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes my Lord.

Mr Addison: And if you turn to page 6, 5 left you will see the name Afua Abono.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes my Lord.

Mr Addison: You will see that the pictures are the same.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords yes as far as the eye can see, they are the same but their ages are different. Afua Abono is suppose to be 75 and Adwoa Gyemfua is suppose to be 47.

Mr Addison: But in spite of the age differences, the picture is the same? 

Dr Afari-Gyan: As far as the eyes can see.

Mr Addison: Now I wish to tender this register through the witness.

Register Disowned

Just as counsel attempted to tender the register, Dr. Afari-Gyan told the court that “this is not the register we used for the election”, to which Mr. Addison replied “this is the register given to the New Patriotic Party.”

Dr Afari-Gyan: This is not the register we used for the election.

Mr Addison: Is this register given to the New Patriotic Party?

Gloria Akufo

Dr Afari-Gyan: I cannot confirm that.

Mr Addison: By what process do you confirm that this is the register given to the New Patriotic Party? 

Dr Afari-Gyan:  Well we gave exactly the same register to everybody.

Mr Addison: You did not give hard copies, you gave soft copies.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Okay the soft copies would be the same for everybody.

PDF Drama

When the argument became heated over who had the right copy of the register, Dr Afari-Gyan told the packed court that he did not know what PDF software used to store documents without being able to tamper with it, was.

He could also not tell the court in what format the EC produced the soft copies of the register for the parties.

Mr Addison: And the soft copy is in PDF form which cannot be altered. Do you know as a fact that it was in PDF form and it cannot be altered?

Dr Afari-Gyan: We gave you a register, I don’t know what form it was in.

Mr Addison: I suggesting to you that it was in PDF and it cannot be altered.

Dr Afari-Gyan: Well your suggestion maybe correct or wrong, I cannot confirm that.

Mr Addison: So by what process will you confirm the register given to the New Patriotic Party?

Dr Afari-Gyan: By finding out from the people who gave it to you.

Mr Addison: Finding out what?

Dr Afari-Gyan: You said the register was given to you in a certain form. Somebody gave you the register, the technical people, I can go back to the technical people and ask the form in which they gave it to you.

Mr Addison: Just that?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords, he told me that it was given to him in a certain form, you mention PDF or whatever so what else am I suppose to check for?

Mr Addison: Dr Afari-Gyan do you know the form in which all the document from EC is done?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords, I do not know.

Mr Addison: I’m suggesting to you that it all comes in PDF form so it cannot be altered .

Dr Afari-Gyan: I’m saying that your suggestion may be correct or wrong but it is subject to verification.

Mr Addison: Subject to verification you are going to see your technical people and how would you verify it.

Justice Dotse: Dr Afari-Gyan are you saying you want to verify the register from your records?

Dr Afari-Gyan: I’m saying my Lords that this is not the register that we printed for the elections.

Mr Addison: My Lords we are interested because it means they gave something different to the New Patriotic Party. It is a very serious matter.

Justice Atuguba: Mr Addison you said the EC document are in what form? 

Mr Addison: PDF.

Justice Atuguba: Okay.

Judge Intervenes

As Dr. Afari-Gyan tried to insist that he did not know what PDF was, Justice Rose C. Owusu, a panel member cut in to ask: “Dr Afari-Gyan do I take you to mean that as chairman of the EC, you don’t know what a PDF is? To which he replied “I’m saying that I don’t know whether it was given to them in PDF form. Well we give you in a format that is difficult to alter but I can say that the register for the elections the arrangement is not in this form.” 

 

Justice Owusu: You are saying that you don’t know that that form is called PDF form, is that what you are saying?

Dr Afari-Gyan: No I don’t my Lord.

Mr Addison: My Lords we have the external drives here handed over to the New Patriotic Party by the EC. We can demonstrate it. These are the thing which were handed over which contains all the information on the register so we are interested.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords the register has the same number of persons on it. I remember I said the other day that is was 1074. It is 1074 here which means which means in terms of number of voters it is the same, the arrangement is different.

Atuguba’s Query

Justice Atuguba: But from what you are saying, since the last sitting and today, it appears there is nothing of substance that is different from your full register and the extract they are bringing.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords, let me explain, the first time I was given a wrong register, I was given a register bearing the polling station code 331701 that is where I did not find the people. There isn’t no substantial difference.

Justice Dotse: Dr Afari-Gyan you see under article 45 (a), it is the mandate of the EC which should chair to produce voters register and this controversy has arisen because of your answer that the way in which what you have been given is, is not exactly what was used in the 2012 elections. Is that not what you have told us?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords that is correct.

Justice Dotse: But you have gone ahead to say the total number on this register tallies with the figure you gave last week.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lord yes it does.

Justice Dotse: Then can you help the court by either providing what you have or verifying this document with your document then we go ahead. 

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords a brought a copy of the register here the other day I don’t know whether it is in court, if it is not in court, it can be produced this afternoon.

Baffoe-Bonnie Baffled

Justice Baffoe-Bonnie: It really baffled us to how a register that you have given us in soft copy because as it is now they have only made these extracts or copies from the soft copy presumably but the soft copy has an arrangement which is different from how you produced yours. I don’t understand. Because I would have thought that if you put the soft copy into any machine and it is suppose to produce ten pictures on the page, the paging will be the same.  

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lord I’m equally baffled.

Justice Baffoe-Bonnie: So either what you gave them is not the same as what you used or what they have produced is not from what you gave them.

Victor K. Adawudu and Nana Ato Dadzie

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords I’m baffled because the instruction to the technical people was that they should finish printing the register before they give them the copies to make sure that we have the exact copies of the register. Unless that instruction varied, there should be no reason why the arrangement should be different.

Objection

James Quarshie-Idun, representing the EC then objected to the tendering of petitioners register the witness had not accepted the authenticity of the document.

Tsatsu Tsikata, representing the NDC entered that fray citing the Evidence Decree and said unless it was proven to the satisfaction of the court that the document was authentic it was “quite prejudicial for the court to accept this document”.

Dr. Abdul Bassit Aziz Bamba, representing President Mahama in the absence of Tony Lithur said one basic rule “is for the witness to be able to answer questions from an exhibit but that does not appear to be the case.”

He said “if the witness says the arrangement of the pictures in the original document is different from the one in the Petitioners Register then it is a source of great concern.”

Different Dates On Register

Mr. Addison came back strongly saying that “I have found the reason for the difference in the arrangement of the two documents. The register for the EC was manipulated after the elections. The EC register was printed on Tuesday July 9 2013 but the petitioners register was printed on November 21 2012.”

However, due to Mr. Addison’s earlier concession that he was ready to tender both registers, he subsequently agreed to tender it through Dr. Afari-Gyan and it was done without any objection.

Lists Tendered

Dr. Afari-Gyan told the court that “to some extent” he had read the KPMG report and confirmed that some of the 1545 pink sheets exhibits was rejected by KPMG.

He said the lists spelt out polling station codes, names and exhibit numbers and also confirmed that 850 out of the lists had polling station codes which were “clearly identifiable”.

Dr. Afari-Gyan said he did not see why the petitioners were only concentrating on 850 pink sheets when the court ordered for 1545 to be listed before Mr. Quarshie-Idun said he was having difficulty in the line of questioning by Mr. Addison.

Mr. Addison put to Dr. Afari-Gyan that 850 pink sheets were identified with the polling station codes to which he agreed before Mr. Addison added that further 690 had been identified by the Petitioners to which Dr. Afari-Gyan confirmed.

added that there was additional 15 polling stations which were identified by the EC and when added to 1219, the total number stood at 1234 before it was tendered in evidence without any objection.

Mr. Addison asked the witness if he has seen a list 833 polling stations which the Petitioners submitted to the EC and he confirmed before counsel asked Dr. Afari-Gyan to identify a list of uniquely identified pink sheets which was part of 2678 pink sheets in the president set but not in the Registrar's set but the witness said he could not confirm because it was not part of the orders of the court to spell out what was in the President's set and what is not.

After a back-and-forth argument, Mr. Addison put it to Dr. Afari-Gyan that the 833 are unique polling stations taken out of the 2678 before the witness confirmed.

The Nigeria Connection

Mr Addison: Dr Afari-Gyan at the request of the President of Nigeria, the UK and US diplomatic missions arranged for an international independent electoral assessment team to make recommendations for elections 2011 in Nigeria. You are aware of this?

Dr Afari-Gyan : My Lords, I am. I was the leader of that team.

Mr Addison: You were the leader of the 5 member team?

Dr Afari-Gyan: I was.

Mr Addison: And you presented your final report in January 2010?

Dr Afari-Gyan: I may not remember the exact date but we did present a report.

Mr Addison: You made some recommendations in the report?

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes my Lord we would.

Mr Addison: Do you recall some of these recommendations?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lord I don’t.

Mr Addison: Well I can refresh your memory. One of your recommendations was that, given the severe lack of confidence in the INAC leadership and INAC’s perceived partiality in favor of the incumbent, the president should reconstitute the INAC chair and board based on a broad and inclusive consultation process. Do you remember this?

  

Dr Afari-Gyan: Very well.

Mr Addison: Dr Afari-Gyan, if given the same opportunity in Ghana, will you make such a recommendation?

Dr Afari-Gyan : My Lord we have a very good, transparent, firm and tested electoral system. 

Mr Addison: You mean this recommendation is fit for Nigeria and not Ghana?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords there are many countries that will like to emulated the Ghanaian electoral system.

Mr Addison: Now the second recommendation was INAC should be transparent in its work by providing full information to election stakeholders in easily accessibly format. Would you recommend that for Ghana?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords we have always done that in Ghana, we have even gone beyond that to the extent that many places you won’t even know where they are printing they are ballots, the calculations on which the ballot printing is based….The level of transparency is very high and as a result, the level of verifiability is also high.

 

Mr Addison: Dr Afari-Gyan, another recommendation was that a major area of concern has been a lack of transparency and verifiability in the results process, the counting of votes and the transmission and tabulation of results must be transparent and conducted in strict compliance with the electoral law in particular…beautiful words, would you recommend that for Ghana? 

Dr Afari-Gyan: In effect what we were doing to recommending the Ghanaian system to Nigeria.

Mr Addison: I think you have just forgotten that you denied the petitioners access to collation sheets. The very thing you talk about here you denied it to the parties.

Dr Afari-Gyan: I have not denied you access to any information.

Mr Addison: Do parties in Ghana have access to collation sheets that you are recommending Nigerians should have?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords the recommendation doesn’t say they should be given the collation sheet. Look the collation sheet is such a big thing that you don’t give it to everybody that is why after the collation, there is a summary sheets that we give to everybody.

Mr Addison: Dr Afari-Gyan, Nigeria so many times bigger than Ghana and obviously with far bigger constituencies, you are recommending that the collation sheets should be given to parties and you are saying that in Ghana, it is too big s sheet to be given out?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lord I did not recommend that the collation sheet be given to the parties. I said the collation results should be given to the parties. A copy of the result does not mean you give the entire collation sheet to the political party.

Ledzokuku Bombshell

Mr Addison: You even reluctant to give us what you are so freely giving to others. Are you familiar with the results in the Ledzokuku constituency?

Dr Afari-Gyan : My Lords no, off hand I wouldn’t. Unless you present them to me I wouldn’t.

Mr Addison: In the Ledzokuku constituency, the first respondent had 53,710 a collation of the pink sheet but the results declared for the first respondent 67,710 a difference of a whopping 14,000. In the same Ledzokuku constituency, the first petitioner on the computer of the pink sheets had 40,662 but the announced result for the first petitioner was 30,605, a difference of 10,057 had been taken away.

The court after hearing extensive arguments from all counsel following the respondent’s objection to the line of cross-examination said it will rule on the matter today.