Dr Bawumia never attended IPAC meetings – EC

Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) on Wednesday said Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, second petitioner in the election 2012 petition case, never attended any of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meetings prior to the elections.

Dr Afari-Gyan described IPAC meetings as crucial in Ghana’s electoral system.

He stated these when he was being cross-examined by Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, Counsel for the third respondent in the ongoing election petition case.

The EC Chairman who appeared as a witness for the second respondent, the Electoral Commission, also said Dr Bawumia's claims that more than 10 per cent of ballot papers were distributed to polling stations, was a misunderstanding of the process of distribution.

On the issue of serial numbers, Dr Afari-Gyan reiterated that the numbers were not generated by the EC but by the printers of the pink sheets and did not have any implication at all on the elections.

Dr Afari-Gyan said serial numbers for now were of no importance at all to the elections and that if the Supreme Court ruled that it was of any importance then the EC would find a use to it.

Mr Tsikata in his cross-examination also asked Dr Afari-Gyan what the implications would be if the Supreme Court were to rule that results of the election be cancelled in polling stations, which had two pink sheets but with different results.

Dr Afari-Gyan responded that it would imply that all results across the over 26,000 polling stations should be cancelled.

Mr Tsikata went further to ask if results in all 26,000 polling stations with similar cases would also have to be cancelled if the Supreme Court were to rule that the results in a polling station where the presiding officer failed to sign the pink sheet should be cancelled.

“We will not do selective application of the law,” Dr Afari-Gyan stated.

On the compilation of the voters' register, Dr Afari-Gyan affirmed that the EC relied on the political parties, to help clean up the register and that even when the commission lost its data, it was the political parties the EC relied on to provide estimates of the data lost.