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Press Release
August 04, 2013
NPP
MULTIPLE & UNACCOUNTED
REGISTRATIONS IN VOTERS’ REGISTER & 307,000 UNACCOUNTED BALLOT
PAPERS PROVIDED OPPORTUNITY FOR IRREGULARITIES – PETITIONERS
Multiple and unaccounted identities in the voters’ register as
well as the over 300,000 ballot papers the Electoral Commission
could not account for in the course of the ongoing Presidential
Election petition, according to the petitioners, provided an
opportunity for the various infractions which characterized the
2012 General Elections to occur.
According to the 176 paged address of the petitioners, the EC’s
failure to account fully for the 241,524 persons it claims
increased the voters’ register from 13,917,366 to 14,158,890 and
the several multiple registrations found in the voters’ register
served as a conduit to facilitate infractions like over-voting
and voting without biometric verification.
Unaccounted Registrations in Voters’ Register
The petitioners drew the court’s attention to the Electoral
Commission’s answers to the petition and subsequent answers to
queries on the voters’ register which the EC was unable to
substantiate and which clearly proved the huge imperfections
with the voters register.
“In its Answer to the Petition, the 2nd respondent provided an
initial provisional registration figure of 13,917,366. The 2nd
respondent further claimed that after the conduct of
registration of Foreign Service officials, students abroad on
Government of Ghana scholarship, Ghanaians working abroad in
international organizations, and the late registration of
foreign personnel returning from international peace-keeping
duties, the figure increased to 14,158,890 registered voters.
This represented an increase of 241,524 registered voters over
the provisional registration figure of 13,917,366.
“The 2nd respondent added that after processing the data to
include persons who had been improperly removed from the
register and removing names that had been improperly added to
the register, the register reduced to 14,031,793. Petitioners
requested further and better particulars on the 241,524
registrations 2nd respondent claimed to have conducted of
Ghanaians abroad and returning peacekeeping personnel. It is
significant that the 2nd respondent was only able to provide
2,883 particulars, leaving a staggering 238,641 entries without
particulars and, thus, unaccounted for in the register. It is
submitted that the claim of foreign registration accounting for
the 241,524 excess entries in the register, following the
compilation and publication of the provisional register, was an
afterthought intended to mislead this Honourable Court. Simply
put, the claim that the excess of 241,524 registrations being
attributable to so-called foreign registration was not borne out
by the evidence led by 2nd respondent. It is yet another
indication of the lack of credibility of 2nd respondent in this
Petition. It is submitted that the 238,641 registrations, which
could not be identified with particulars of any lawfully
registered voters, provides the opportunity for infractions such
as over-voting and voting without biometric verification”, the
address said.
Multiple Registrations
The petitioners also noted the “clear evidence” of an unreliable
voters’ register produced and used by the EC for the December
2012 Elections as revealed during the cross examination of Dr.
Afari Gyan during the petition hearings.
The petitioners recalled the record of proceedings on 6th June,
2013 when Dr. Afari Gyan admitted 50 instances of multiple
registrations in a register of 705 Ghanaians abroad and noted
that by extrapolating the same percentage, the full register of
14,031,680 persons could have as much as 1,990,000 double
registrations which clearly compromises the elections.
It was also indicated that the failure of the Electoral
Commission to provide a provisional register to the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) and the late and piecemeal supply of the
final register made it virtually impossible for any scrutiny of
the register, and, thereby, contributed substantially in
undermining the transparency, fairness and integrity of the
December 2012 elections’.
The EC it would be recalled furnished the NPP with the final
voters’ register from 19th November to December 2nd, 2012 (4
days to the Election).
Below is an extract from the Address on the Multiple
Registrations in the Voters’ Register
It is instructive to note that in the cross-examination of the
Chairman of 2nd respondent, Dr. Afari-Gyan, clear evidence of
the unreliability of the voters register was established. The
voters‟ register was proved to be laden with many cases of
multiple registration by individuals. This evidence of multiple
registration was illustrated through a reference to the
registration of Ghanaians abroad. A list of instances where
people registered to vote on multiple times and were issued with
different identification cards by the 2nd respondent was
prepared and questions asked of Dr. Afari-Gyan by counsel for
petitioners on 6th June, 2013.
At pages 35-38 of the record of proceedings, the evidence on
this was set out.
In all, out of 705 people allegedly registered abroad by 2nd
respondent, 50 cases of multiple registrations were admitted to
by Dr. Afari-Gyan. This constitutes approximately 14% of the
number of people allegedly registered abroad. If in just a list
of 705 people registered abroad, 50 cases of double registration
can be found, then extrapolating the same percentage in respect
of the total voters register of 14,031,680 will result in a
figure of some 1,990,000 double registration.
It is submitted that the double registrations effected by the
2nd respondent was due to the manner in which the registration
of voters was done, whereby nobody could even determine the
exact number of total registered voters in Ghana as of December,
2012. The 2nd respondent‟s failure to furnish the NPP with the
provisional register and the late and piecemeal supply of the
certified register disabled the NPP from scrutinizing in detail
the voters register. The numbers on which the 2nd respondent was
going to rely in the conduct of the December 2012 polls kept
changing so much that 2nd respondent even claimed to have made a
mistake in the figure it used in the declaration of the results
on 9th December, 2012.
Ballot Papers Printed by 2nd Respondent
The petitioners also mentioned the failure of the Electoral
Commission to account for over 307,000 ballot papers per the
breakdown provided by the EC Chairman during the trial. This
together with the evidence on the face of the pink sheets being
relied upon by the petitioners which shows that an extremely
large number were printed relative to the registered voters
provided the means for irregularities and various violations.
Below is an Extract on the Unaccounted Ballot Papers in the
Address of the Petitioners
The Chairman of the 2nd respondent denied the petitioners claim
that the ballots printed for the 2012 elections were some 100%
more than the total number of registered voters, way above the
10% margin that was communicated by the 2nd respondent to the
NPP and other political parties. Dr. Afari Gyan maintained that
the total number of ballots printed for the election was
15,434,968. This was captured in the record of the proceedings
on the 11th of June 2013, at pages 3 to 5. During
cross-examination by counsel for the petitioners, Dr. Afari-Gyan
provided a breakdown of the ballots printed as follows:
• Booklets of 100 ballots - 141,597 = 14,159,700
• Booklets of 50 ballots - 12,627 = 631,350
• Booklets of 25 ballots - 38,041 = 951,025
It is clear that the evidence of Dr. Afari Gyan on this issue
was not truthful. This is because if one adds up the total
number of ballots printed from the breakdown he provided, it
amounts to 15,742,075. This figure is 307,107 higher than the
15,434,968 number he provided as the total ballots printed. In
an election where the margin of difference is in the region of
320,000, Dr Afari-Gyan‟s inability to account for 307,107
ballots is very significant. The pink sheets in evidence also
support the petitioners‟ claim that an inordinately large number
of ballots were printed relative to the number of registered
voters in the 10,119 polling stations in contention. Summing up
the ballots issued to the polling stations in column A1 of the
pink sheets which petitioners are relying on results in a total
number of 10,245,680.
This means that if the 2nd respondent printed 15,434,968 ballots
as they claim, then they only had a balance of 5,189,288 ballots
for the remaining 15,883 polling stations. This would be clearly
insufficient. The evidence provided by Dr. Afari Gyan is
therefore not credible.
As was the case with the voters register, the 2nd respondent was
unable to provide consistent figures on the number of ballots
printed for the 2012 presidential election. An inordinately
large number of ballots relative to registered voters provides
the opportunity for violations, malpractices and irregularities
such as over-voting, and voting without biometric verification.
Petitioners’ Case
The petitioners are seeking a declaration from the court that
John Dramani Mahama was not validly elected President of the
Republic of Ghana and a further declaration that Nana Akufo-Addo
was rather validly elected as President.
In all, the petitioners are seeking the court to annul 3,931,339
votes from the 10,119 polling stations where various
constitutional and statutory violations and irregularities
marred the conduct and outcome of the elections as is evidenced
on the face of pink sheets (Statement of Poll & Declaration of
Result Forms) from those polling stations and which have been
proven to have been filed by the petitioners in the KPMG Report
and from the exhibits used by the respondents in their cross –
examination of 2nd Petitioner, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
When annulled, 2,622,551 votes will have to be annulled from the
declared votes of John Mahama while 1,233,186 will have to be
deducted from the vote total of Nana Akufo-Addo. These
deductions would see John Mahama having 41.79% of the valid
votes cast while Nana Akufo-Addo would have 56.85%.
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