How Afari Gyan’s evidence might settle all issues

The Electoral Commission (EC) is expected to take its turn at the ongoing 2012 Election Petition Hearing at the Supreme Court later this week or early next week. It is likely the Chairman of the EC, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, will be in the box or the lot could fall on his deputy, Alhaji Amadu Sulley.

The thrust of the case of the NPP has been that presiding officers at some polling stations Did Not indicate on the pink sheets, that:

(a) Voters did exercise their franchise without going through the biometric verification process, so the votes at those polling stations should be annulled (cancelled)

(b) Some of the presiding officers did not sign the pink sheets, so all the votes at those polling stations should also be annulled (cancelled) and

(c) At some of the polling stations, the pink sheets had some blank spaces and the votes should be annulled (cancelled).

Analysts believe that when the EC takes the stand, it will do a number of simple things to put many issues to rest.

(a) Voting without biometric – the EC is likely to print out the biometric details of all those who voted at some of those polling stations, to perhaps prove a point that an administrative error does not necessarily mean that votes of Ghanaians should be annulled (cancelled);

(b) The non-signature of some presiding officers – as per the EC’s affidavit at the Supreme Court, 99% of the 2,009 pink sheets the NPP is alleging were signed. The EC will have to present the originals.