The star witness of the NPP, Dr. Bamumia had insisted during his cross-examination that they had filed 11,842 pink sheets at the Supreme Court. Of course, if they had filed 11,842 pink sheets at the court, then it means that the registrar, the respondents and all the 9 Judges sitting on the case should have 11,842 pink sheets, right?
The NPP are in court to ask the Supreme Court to annul about 4.6 million valid votes with their 11,842 pink sheets so that Nana Akuffo Addo will be declared the President of Ghana after the 2012 elections. They insist that it was their right to go to court if they felt the elections were rigged in favor of the present President. I agree with them that they have that right, but I have maintained from day one that their right has not been used wisely.
Now there are a lot of numbers or figures out there as the NPP struggles to get to their 11,842 pink sheets. I have tried to bring all these numbers together to see if we will get to the magic number. If we don’t, then the 9 Judges sitting on the case will decide what to do with the number of pink sheets at the Supreme Court. Remember, we are looking for 11,842.
The first count by KPMG had 13,926 pink sheets in the custody of the court’s registrar. After counting Justice Atuguba’s set of pink sheets, it was discovered that 2,876 pink sheets in Justices Atuguba’s set were not in the set of the registrar. The second count by KPMG had 9,860 pink sheets in the custody of Justice Atuguba. Out of the 9860, 6629 pink sheets were not found amongst the pink sheets in the set of the registrar. Which set would the Judges use to come out with the final verdict? Philip Addison was himself confused in the court and what about you?
During cross-examination of KPMG, Philip Addison indicted that KPMG had 171 pink sheet entry errors, but KPMG maintained that out of the 171 entry errors, 34 of them were errors that the NPP made, which meant that 137 errors were found and fixed. Also during cross-examination, Philip Addison suggested to KPMG that 648 pink sheets that were used by the respondents in their cross-examination were neither in the set of the registrar nor that of Justice Atuguba. KPMG was not allowed to comment on it since it was not within their scope of audit to confirm that figure.
Philip Addison had remarks on a sheet that 1,545 pink sheets were not counted by KPMG. Out of this 1545, he maintained that 850 of them could be identified and should have been counted. KPMG indicated that their report was based on the information extracted from all the pink sheets that were given to them by the registrar. They were instructed to do a “faithful” count of pink sheets and so they couldn’t rely on individual remarks and comments. That would have gone outside their scope of audit. Mr. Addison again said there were 655 pink sheets out of the 1,545 that he thought should have been added to the count but KPMG also stated that the details on the 655 pink sheets were not eligible.
Mr. Addison stated that out of the 1,545 pink sheets he has 1,186 of them that he could identify them as having unique polling stations codes. This is where Mr. Dodoo, the representative of KPMG, told him and the court, “I am not sure how to answer the question.” I agreed with Mr. Dodoo with his response because when you add 850 and 655, you don’t get either 1,186 or 1,545. The NPP has many Lawyers and Doctors who don’t know how to add 1 and 2 and 3 etc. Mr. Addison attempted to present his remarks to court as evidence through KPMG (witness) but the Judges rejected it. So his 1,545 figure was of no use so far as the count was concerned.
As you read this article and do all the permutations on this earth using the above figures, where do you get 11,842 pink sheets? KPMG counted only 2 sets of pinks sheets in the court and found two different numbers. I bet you if KPMG were tasked to count all the pink sheets in the custody of the other 8 Judges, they would have found 8 different figures. No two Judges would have the same number of pink sheets. I am not sure if the NPP themselves know the exact number of pink sheets they want to use to put Nana Akuffo Addo in the presidential palace.
Is it not funny and insulting to accuse the Electoral Commission of errors, irregularities and omissions when the NPP could not even put together pinks sheets that had already been arranged? They went to the Supreme Court with “water-tight” evidence but they don’t know how many of them they had. These are the people who want to rule Ghana again. You see?
At this point, if I am a member or sympathizer of the NPP, I would begin to question my legal team if they really know why they are STILL in court or whether they know what the Judges are looking for. It is important I have an answer to this question, because each passing day brings enough evidence that they don’t.
Lawrence Appiah-Osei
NDC USA Financial Secretary
Appiah65@Hotmail.com
