Asiedu Nketiah supports petitioners on irregularities

General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress and witness for the 1st and 3rd respondents in the ongoing presidential election petition in giving his evidence in chief at the Supreme Court has backed the petitioner's case on most of the major irregularities identified by the petitioners.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah made the concessions while being led in evidence by Counsel for the NDC, Tsatsu Tsikata on the 1st day of his appearance in the witness box as the petitioners had indicated that subject to the results of the ongoing KPMG audit, they had closed their case.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah, while speaking stated that all the parties and participating candidates before the elections agreed, as was also contained in the law, that every voter must be verified by the biometric verification device before he or she is allowed to vote.

He acknowledged that indeed it was for this reason that the parties also established that, in the event a biometric verification device broke down in the course of the election, the device had to be replaced at the affected polling station and that in the event that, that was not possible, voting at the station had to be postponed to the next day.

He noted that there was no circumstance per their agreement and laws which allowed voting to go on without prior biometric verification.

On the issue of the presiding officer’s signature, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah again stated that the presiding officer’s signature was very necessary and that the presiding officer had to sign the statement of the poll and declaration of results form (pink sheet) before the results are declared.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah indeed admitted that there were a number of polling stations where the presiding officers’ signature was absent on the declaration form but said that once the polling agents had witnessed the form, there was no problem if the presiding officer didn’t sign.

On over voting, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah could not give a clear and cogent answer on the irregularity as had been defined by the petitioners. He suggested that even if more ballots were found in the ballot box at the close of voting than ballots issued to voters, it could not be said to be over voting or wrong if the ballots in the box did not exceed the voters’ register at the polling station.

He also said that even if the ballots in the ballot box exceed the number of ballots issued to voters on Election Day, it was alright as long as all the ballots in the ballot box had the stamp of the electoral commission.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah in giving his testimony also stated that he can confirm that no issue of over voting occurred in all the 26,002 polling stations across the country, defying the electoral commission’s admission that indeed a few polling stations were annulled as a result of over voting and voting without biometric verification and also his own Counsel’s attempt to show that over voting occurred in more polling stations than the petitioners had stated including some areas in the petitioner’s stronghold.

In another interesting twist, the NDC General Secretary, in relation to the filling of the ballot accounting section of the Pink Sheet before counting begins as is the stated rule for Election officials, stated that in the villages the election laws and rules were not adhered to as the Presiding officers had to meet the demands of the people.

“My Lords, I heard Dr. Bawumia speaking about the fact that the ballot accounting section of the pink sheet should be filled before the box is opened and I strongly disagree with him. Even though, that is what should be done in theory and as is written on the pink sheet and election guidelines, that is not what happened because in the villages, as soon as it is 5p.m, people start moving to the polling station and start shouting ‘chooboi, chooboi, we want to see what is in the box’ so in such situations, the officers open the box and count before the fill that part of the form”.