Count of pink sheets still unsettled

Lead Counsel for the petitioners in the ongoing presidential election petition, Philip Addison, has indicated to the court the need to settle the matter on the unique count of pink sheets identified by the KPMG refereed audit of the pink sheets submitted by the petitioners.

Counsel Philip Addison made the point just before the court adjourned to Wednesday when the judges indicated that the contents of the KPMG report was what the court was going to abide by henceforth.

Counsel Addison mentioned to the court that the number of unique pink sheets submitted by the petitioners had still not been resolved since the 8,675 identified by KPMG in their count of the registrar’s set of pink sheets did not include some of the exhibits used by the respondents in the cross-examination of 2nd petitioner, Dr. Bawumia, which the petitioners have indicated are as much as 648 as well as some 1,545 exhibits classified by KPMG as illegible due to one or two identifiers which are not clear on the sheets such as exhibit numbers.

The 8,675 unique pink sheets identified by KPMG in their count of the registrar’s set of pink sheets does not also include 2,876 pink sheets found in the set of the president of the panel, Justice William Atuguba, which are not in the registrar’s set of pink sheets as confirmed by a partner at KPMG, Nii Amanoo Dodoo, who represented the firm to defend the report of the international audit and accounting firm.

According to the petitioners, all these unique sheets should be included in any count of the unique sheets filed by the petitioners as they are all in evidence, and as they have been shown by the KPMG report and also through cross-examination, with regard to the exhibits used by the respondents, to have been properly filed by the petitioners. The petitioners also indicate that an addition of all these exhibits would establish clearly that the petitioners filed well over 11,000 pink sheets.

On raising this point, the court agreed to deal with the matter on Wednesday after which cross-examination of Dr. Afari-Gyan by the petitioners would continue.

The various respondents in the case on Tuesday also gave indication that they would not seek leave of the court to cross-examine 2nd petitioner, Dr. Bawumia further as they had earlier indicated that they might want to further cross-examine Dr. Bawumia subject to the findings of the KPMG audit.

The petitioners have already indicated that they need only 1,500 pink sheets to be sustained by the court to bring the declared winner of the elections, John Mahama, below the 50% required to be elected president and 3,500 to overturn the declaration in favour of Nana Akufo-Addo.