MY BOYS DID BAD JOB - AFARI-GYAN

Nana Akufo-Addo & Dr. Bawumia after the proceedings

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

A Pink Sheet with various levels of what can be described as irregularities was put before Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) for identification yesterday and the EC boss admitted that some of his Presiding Officers did a bad job in the 2012 Presidential Elections.

The content on the pink sheet from a Polling Station called DA Primary, Ampemkro with code F093407 (Ashanti Region) had been badly recorded that Justice William Atuguba, president of the nine-member panel hearing the petition remarked that “it appears your officials are developing some ways of numbering.”

Justice Jones Victor Dotse, another panel member also suggested to Dr Afari-Gyan not to engage such “illiterate” presiding officers for future exercises.

After the EC boss had identified the pink sheet by its polling station name, code and exhibit number, the petitioners lead counsel, Philip Addison asked him to mention the results attributed to each candidate.

Dr. Afari-Gyan clearly struggled to read what was on the pink sheet before saying that the written figure was twenty seven but the real figure showed 270 adding “the writing looks like twenty seven zero.”

Illiterate Presiding Officers

Mr Addison:  Can you tell us the polling station name and code

Dr Afari-Gyan: the polling station name is DA Primary Ampemkro and the polling station code is F093407

Mr Addison: Can you tell us how many votes are written against the name of John Mahama?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords in written form it is 27 but in figures it is different. In figures it is 270 but in the written it is not very clear but looks like 27 0  

Justice Atuguba: Let me be clear about what you said. Initially you said the figure is 27 but now you are saying it is 27 0.

Dr Afari Gyan: My Lord I said the written reads like 27 0 but the figure is 27

Justice Atuguba: It appears you officials are involving some new expressions

Justice Dotse: I think the presiding officer must be an illiterate

Mr Addison:  Dr Afari-Gyan, I’m suggesting to you that there is no figure known as 27 0 in words

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords I didn’t write it but no there is no figure like that

Mr Addison: I’m further suggesting to you that the zero there is an after thought and that infact the correct figure is 27

Dr Afari Gyan: My Lords I disagree. I wouldn’t necessarily say so

Mr Addison: Can you tell us what the other candidates got from that sheet

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords, difficult to read what has been written. For John Dramani Mahama in figure its 270, for Henry Herbert Lartey (GCPP), it looks like 117 and there is something behind the 7 that looks like 0. Then Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 16419 then the zero written for Paa Kwesi Nduom. There is also Kwasi Addae Odike, the zero is written across the line not in the column. This is a badly executed Pink Sheet.

Mr Addison: This pink sheet was included in the declaration that you made?

Dr Afari-Gyan: I suppose yes

Mr Addison: But looking at it now, you yourself cannot even tell what votes each of the candidates had. This is the source document

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords, I agree and I cannot tell but I did not see the source document.

Justice Dotse: Can your office make a note and ensure that such a presiding officer is never re-engaged anywhere in your establishment? Clearly he has difficulty with figures

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes, my Lords we will do that. The difficulty is that sometimes in the remote areas you are not there and somebody engages somebody else and this person clearly doesn’t qualify to be a presiding officer.

Same Serial Number

Realizing that the unsigned pink sheets issues was going to delay the proceedings, the court asked Mr. Addison to move to other issues if any so the unsigned pink sheet would be dealt with later and counsel said he was moving to the same serial number category.

Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey

Addison: Dr Afari-Gyan, can you confirm that each of the 23 pairs of 46 pink sheets has different polling station name and code?

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes my Lords I can.

Mr Addison:  You can also confirm that they each have different results

Dr Afari-Gyan: I would say yes because there are different polling stations

Juaso Court Hall

Mr. Addison:  Dr Afari-Gyan, you have in your hands some pink sheets, can you tell s the number of pink sheets that you have ?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords five

Mr Addison: Please give us the polling station name, code and exhibit number of the first one

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords the exhibit number is NBY 000001, the polling station name is Juaso Court Hall and the polling station code is F262901.

Mr Addison:  And the next one?

Dr Afari-Gyan: the next one the exhibit number is NBY, the polling station name is Juaso Court Hall and the polling station code is F262901. The next one the exhibit number is NBK, the polling station name is Juaso Court Hall and the polling station code is F262901.

Mr Addison: Can you confirm that the first 3 pink sheets that you have referred to have the same polling station names and polling station code?

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lord I can confirm that.

Mr Addison: But the result on each of them is different and also have different serial numbers?

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes my Lords that is so

Mr Addison: Are the presiding officers also different?

Dr Afari-Gyan: Two different presiding officers. Two of them had the same presiding officer with one different

Mr Addison:  The two had the same presiding officers, are the two the same?

Dr Afari-Gyan: No my Lord.

Mr Addison: How about the fourth one

Dr Afari-Gyan: the fourth one is exhibit number NBV 000004 and the polling station name is Kalpohin SHS A. The code number is H194903A

Mr Addison:  Can you tell the court the exhibit you have in your hand

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lords i have exhibit MBC 8

Pink Sheet Fight

Immediately the proceedings commenced, the legal teams were again engaged in a war-of-words over what pink sheets to use.

Mr. Addison: My Lords in view of the objection taken by the respondents to the pink sheets that we intend to use in our cross examination, we thought it wise to write to the Registrar, requesting that the copies that he has which has be recorded by KPMG be used by us for the cross examination and we have given copies of this letters to the respondents as well and we are waiting for a feedback on that.

Asiedu-Nketiah

Justice Adinyira : Mr Addison, we’ve seen your letter but I want to ask whether this is different from what you were suppose to give to them by close of day on Friday or they are the same?

Mr. Addison: My Lord it is not different because they have seen what we have and have objected.

Justice Adinyira: okay, may we know why you are objection to it?

Lithur’s Withdrawal

Mr. Lithur: My Lord, we are actually in the process of filing an affidavit indicating our objection because we thought that it should be now a matter of record. Your Lordships would recall that some of the lists that were tendered, delineations were made from them because we had objected to them and indeed some list had been submitted to us that had not been used because of the strenuous objections that we raised to them, we have those copies. Now it appears what was done this time was to go back, take those exhibits and change the exhibit numbers to coincide with KPMG exhibit numbers and we quiet concerned about that and in fact, that is the essence of the affidavit that we have raised and we are actually alleging forgery because that essentially it is when you try and create exhibits which were not exhibits filed in the registry because my understanding is that when you file, you are given the exhibit back so when you show an exhibit that has different label from that which is in KPMG, the assumption it that, that was what was returned to you. Now you go back and that same exhibit now has a number that rhymes with KPMG

Justice Sulley N. Gbadegbe: These are very serious matters so we cannot just be listening to them as we always do. Let the matter come to us properly and them we hear it

Justice Atuguba: Mr Lithur, are you saying that they are related to the list they have specified for the registrar to make available for their cross examination?   

Lithur: We don’t have that letter that is why we filed this in objection to the proposed use the list giving to us.

Tsatsu Tsikata: My Lord we do not have it either normally, we are served at the office of the solicitor.

Mr. Quarshie-Idun: My Lord I received the letter on Friday evening together with the list attached. We had a problem with the list. One there are a large number of exhibits which are not found in the KPMG report. There are others in which the exhibit numbers do not tally with the exhibit numbers in the KPMG report and there are others which are repetitions of exhibits that have already been presented to Dr. Afari-Gyan and he has given his responses to the questions on them so we have serious problems with the list that they brought to us on Friday.

Justice Baffoe-Bonnie: Mr Addison, would it be that you are abandoning the pink sheets that you gave to the respondents.

Mr. Addison: My Lords we gave them the pink sheets that we intended to you and they indicated their objection to some of them, those that they did not object to, we showed it to the witness So those that they objected to, we cancelled it in the list and we have prepared a fresh list using the exhibit numbers in KPMG report and that is what we have written to the registrar. So those are the ones that they objected to.

Justice Baffoe-Bonnie: So you want the registrar to provide you these pink sheets which have been filed?

Esther Ofori & Fred Oware

Mr. Addison: That is so my Lord, that is all.

Mr. Lithur: Based on your orders when we were waiting, we had the list and out understanding was that, that was the list they were going to use for today so we spent all weekend going through that list and comparing it and that is the object of this our affidavit. If that letter was interned to get the registrar to, then of course i withdraw the affidavit and i would without reservation apologise to the other side. We work on the assumption and having seen that letter that they intended now to use pink sheets based on the list that they had given us.

Justice Baffoe-Bonnie: I don’t think you need to apologize, I think what happened was that from the sequence of events, what happened was that they gave you some pink sheets, you looked through, you objected to some and they said ok, if you object to these at least we have those that we in official custody and those are the ones with the registrar so instead of going with what we have or what you have, let us go with what you have in the officials. This letter can only give a reaction to your objection.

Atuguba’s Warning

Justice Atuguba: I think we should all be tired of serious allegations bothering of forgery and so forth. These are very serious things so those one, unless you are extremely sure and you can establish, don’t impede them. So this should be avoided.  We want clarification to help us direct the management control of the case. This list you are questing from the registrar is it in addition to the pink sheets we directed at the last sitting that the rest should be delivered to them. Those that you are calling from the registrar, are they in addition to others which we will not need such a production or it’s the entire and exhaustive set that you are going to proceed on for today?

Mr. Addison: My Lord the pink sheets that we are requesting from the registrar relates to no signatures.

Justice Atuguba: But the others you delivered are still there.

Registrar’s Copy

The court acceded to the petitioners request to use the Registrar’s set for the cross-examination of Dr. Afari-Gyan to avoid any further objections.

Mr. Addison had indicated to the court that they were ready to use pink sheets that were in the  custody of the court where those pink sheets were in contention but was ready to proceed with the non-contentious ones.

After the break, the Registrar brought the documents being sought by the petitioners but they had apparently been mixed up during the KPMG count and Mr. Addison told the court that he needed some time to sort that out.

905 Polling Station

There was another debate between Mr. Addison and Mr. Quarshie-Idun over the 905 list of pink sheets that Dr. Afari-Gyan promised to furnish the court.

According to Mr. Addison, the simple request for the 905 unsigned pink sheets had not been complied with since the EC had attached other analysis which the petitioners said they did not need.

Nana Ato Dadzie

The court eventually asked Mr. Addison to decide on the document which counsel said he was ‘reluctantly’ tendering in evidence.

Addison: Do you have in your possession the list of 905 polling station with unsigned pink sheets?

Dr Afari-Gyan: Yes my Lord i do

Justice Gbadegbe: He asked him a question on cross examination, he said he has the list and he has brought it to you, you either tender it or you leave it. It is not for you to be inspecting because the court cannot be wating whiles you go through 905 lists.

Mr. Addison: My Lords he hasn’t provided us with just a list but it has other information, other compilation just like previously

Justice Gbadegbe: At the end of the day you address. When you asked him, he said something specifically but he brought something other than what you say he providing so hold it against him, that is the practice.

Justice Atuguba: Mr Addision, do i understand you to be saying that he hasn’t brought an exclusive list of the 905 ? But the other time you did such a thing and we had to get some red pen and break for you. Why do you do this again?

Mr. Quarshie Idun: Yes the 905 are all there listed with their polling station and everything.

Dr Afari-Gyan: My Lord it is exclusive, only 905.

Justice Atuguba: Then Addison what is the problem?

Justice Gbadegbe: A witness is not obliged to give evidence to satisfy your case or to support your case. If he produces evidence which is contrary to your case, you can comment on it. He said 905 categorically, he was granted time, he has produced a list which to you is not the list that he offered to produce so the court should infer ABC or something from it but the man has taken time to produce the list you say its not the list then what happens? For instance you ask me to provide my birth certificate, then i provide the death certificate of my father, you have it tendered and say it is not true that he was born on that day.

Mr. Addison: My Lord we will tender it

Justice Baffoe-Bonnie: I have seen the analyses on the first page. You see the 905 is there. Out of the 905 region by region, the total number of constituency is 2,602 then the result you claim were not signed 2009, then number signed by presiding officers according to them 1,104. Number not signed by presiding officers according to EC 905 then number signed by candidate agents 1,989 so the information you have is here in addition to other information.

Gloria Akufo

Justice Atuguba:  Mr Addison, if you are worried that there is excess of exhibits, i mean we will understand the tendering to be limited to the 905. You can produce evidence on the condition that it is limited to a specific matter.

Mr. Addison: My Lord we will reluctantly tender through him.

Sitting continues today.