NPP Kick Against Print-Outs From Biometric Voting Device

By Nana Akua Tweneboah-Koduah

The nine-member Supreme Court (SC) justices have been empaneled to unravel the truth concerning the results of the 2012 Presidential Election. This is because the loser, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who represented the NPP as their flagbearer, failed to concede defeat claiming he was cheated out and rather decided to seek the help of the court to overturn the results in his favour.

The NPP went to court with loads of allegations, but it seems anytime the respondents want to prove their case by attempting to tender evidence, Mr Philip Addison, NPP’s lead counsel, who will long be remembered as “Professor Objection” always manage to put impediments in their way by raising objections.

The onerous job of the justices is to review all the available evidence before them, listen to all the parties and determine the truth or otherwise of all the arguments put forward. Therefore, if you are a neutral person listening or following the petition case and you have seen the NPP who strongly believe that injustice has been done to them by way of being robbed of victory and have put forward their evidence to buttress their case in court, you may be wondering why the NPP folks do not want the other parties to also submit their evidence to help in the final determination of the case.

The NPP star witness, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia mounted the witness box and without any foundation made multiple accusations some of which fulcrums on law of which he has limited understanding of. Two of the serious accusations that Dr Bawumia made was that some millions of voters voted by not being verified by the biometric machine whilst others voted more than once as stipulated by law.

Therefore, to ascertain the truth of whether anybody was allowed to vote in the December 2012 elections without going through biometric verification, the Electoral Commission (EC) which is presenting its evidence-in-chief at the SC through its Commissioner, Dr Afari Gyan, on Monday June 3, sought to tender the printed data from the Biometric Voting Device (BVD) to demonstrate to the court and the whole world who is telling the truth.

The EC recalled the BVD’s from all the polling stations under contention to its national headquarters. At the headquarters, the EC downloaded the voting data and printed it all. It, therefore, decided to tender the print out to the SC to enable the justices to review and determine whether the allegations by the NPP holds water.

But Philip Addison, who has seen all his allegations withering before his very eyes, will not allow the EC to hit the home run with this damning information. He shot up claiming that there is nothing on the face on the document being tendered by the EC which shows that it is original information from the BVD. Mr Addison also stated that the second respondents had the opportunity to present this evidence when they were asked by the court to do so, but they failed. Therefore, he does not understand why the EC is trying to spring a surprise on the petitioners.

The EC lawyer, Mr James Quarshie-Idun counted that he was not springing any surprise on the petitioners, arguing that since the petitioners are claiming that there were voting without verification in certain polling stations, the only way to settle the issue was the print-out from the BVD’s.

But by a strange 7-2 decision the justices sustained the objection raised by the NPP. Even though Philip Addison had his way through the objection he raised, many observers see the NPP running away from the truth by way of adopting some technicalities to wiggle their way out.

If you make a wild allegation that some Ghanaians voted without verification, why would you prevent the EC to tender print-outs from the BVD’s for the justices to determine if your allegation is true or otherwise?

You can only do that if you strongly believe that the tendering of the print-outs from the BVD’s by the EC will make the truth come out to bite you. The NPP seems to be running in circles. They are in court trying to seek the truth, but have been running away from the truth anytime something pops up to expose them.

The world is watching. Ghanaians are also watching. Therefore, the antics by the NPP will not remain forever. At a point in time, they will reach the dead-end and that is when they will realize that turning and turning in the widening gyre will certainly not make the centre hold.

nakuakoduah@yahoo.com