Errors were not corrected before declaration – Afari-Gyan

Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission on Tuesday told the Supreme Court while being cross-examined that the errors which affected the conduct of the elections and which are evident on the face of pink sheets from polling stations across the country, were not corrected before the declaration of John Mahama as the winner of the presidential elections was made.

Dr. Afari-Gyan conceded to this fact on the fourth day of his cross-examination by lawyer for the petitioners, Counsel Philip Addison.

In cross-examining the EC Chairman, the lead counsel of the petitioners handed Dr. Afari-Gyan thirty (30) pink sheets on which incidents of voting without verification occurred at those polling stations.

As part of the sections of the pink sheet is the ballot accounting section which, among others, requires the presiding officer to indicate the number of ballot papers issued to voters on the polling station register (C1) and the number of voters out of this number who voted without being verified by the use of the biometric verification device (C3) (C3 states: What is the number of ballots issued to voters verified by the use of Form 1C (but not by the use of BVD)).

When confronted with the pink sheets on which part of the voters at the particular polling stations were recorded to have voted without being verified, Dr. Afari-Gyan’s initial explanation was that the C1 and C3 sections ought to be summed up to find the total number of people who were given ballots at the polling station.

However, this was sharply countered by Counsel Philip Addison who indicated to the witness that, that would lead to double counting as the number of persons who voted without being verified were also on the polling station register and thus included in the C1 section. The explanation given by Counsel Philip Addison was supported by Justice Baffoe Bonnie and Justice Dotse.

However, Dr. Afari-Gyan further explained that the numbers indicated in the C3 sections were not on the voters’ register and that they should be taken separately from the entries made in the C1 sections.

When pushed further, Dr. Afari-Gyan shifted his position and concluded that all such entries in the C3 part of the pink sheet arose out of errors and that the entries should not have been placed at the C3 section.

This reasoning by Dr. Afari-Gyan prompted Justice Baffoe Bonnie to inquire from the EC Boss where those entries should have been placed if it should not have been entered in the C3 section as the entries in the C3 section were completely different from all other numbers filled in on the pink sheets and thus couldn’t be said to be trans-positional errors. Dr. Afari-Gyan, as usual, failed to also indicate where in his view those entries should have been entered.

Indeed, Dr. Afari-Gyan proceeded to state that the whole Pink Sheet and especially the ballot accounting section was designed in error.

Counsel Philip Addison inquired from Dr. Afari-Gyan if the commission and himself as returning officer for the presidential elections corrected/rectified the errors before the declaration was made especially as the EC Boss throughout his evidence in chief and cross-examination had blamed all the irregularities on the face of the pink sheets on errors which arose in the elections.

Dr. Afari-Gyan in answering stated that not a single error was corrected before he made the declaration and that he did not do that because he had no access to any pink sheet.