By Margaret Jackson
June 3, 2013
The Electoral Commissioner, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, has released a scoop that President John Mahama won in all the seven polling stations where results were annulled during the 2012 Presidential Election.
Dr Afari Gyan, who was continuing with his evidence-in-chief in the on-going Supreme Court (SC) petition case, stated emphatically that if the annulled votes were added President Mahama would still have won by “one touch”. There would not have been any second round.
This bombshell exposes the lie by the NPP that the votes that were annulled came from NPP strongholds. In all 3,800 votes were annulled from the Northern, Eastern and Brong Ahafo Regions. The NPP have cited the annulled results from the 7 polling stations to buttress their case that since those results were cancelled due to irregularities, the SC must also annul over 4 million votes in strongholds won by President Mahama to pave the way for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to become the president.
But the NPP seems to have forgotten that in the 7 polling stations the votes were annulled after the party agents detected and lodged a formal complaint which eventually led to the cancellation of those results. The agents did not witness the voting, the counting and certified that the results were free, fair and transparent before seizing the pink sheets to lodge a protest in court.
Dr Afari Gyan stressed that if the annulled votes were awarded to each candidate President Mahama’s overall tally would have increased whilst that of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would have decreased. The Commissioner told the court that apart from the results that were cancelled in Berekum, he heard about the six others from the petitioners.
He however stressed that even if the cancelled results in those polling stations had been communicated to him, it would not have meant that much or would not have called for a re-run of elections in those areas since President Mahama won in all those areas.
Dr Afari Gyan told the court that the results in those polling stations were cancelled due to allegations of votes in the ballot box exceeding the verified votes. He explained that all the polling stations where the votes were annulled had the votes in the ballot box greater than the verified votes by one, except Berekum which has 8 extra votes.
Dr Afari Gyan who was his usual self took his time and again schooled the court which was attended by more NPP members. He stated that when it comes to the cancellation of parliamentary results, the Returning Officer has the authority to cancel, but with the Presidential Results, he Dr Afari Gyan must be informed.
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