Petitioners to rely on ‘no signatures’ in filing address

Barley six days to the close of filing of addresses by both the petitioners and the respondents as instructed by the Justice William Atuguba presided nine member Supreme court panel hearing the ongoing election petition, very reliable reports stamped on by The Al-Hajj indicates that the petitioners’ allegation on unsigned ‘pink sheets’ by presiding officers will form the nerve center of their address.

Even though the petitioner’s initial best bet was said to be on their claim of duplicate serial numbers on pink sheets which alone could have caused the President more than 2 million votes; but for the ‘fierce’ and strong defense mounted by the 2nd respondent against that claim, a source close to the petitioners’ legal team said, they have decided to latch onto the claim of non-signing of pink sheets by EC officials as it is a constitutional requirement, and it remains the only accusation the 2nd respondent has substantially admitted to.

Nonetheless, the dependable source added that, the petitioners are seriously putting together ‘strong’ arguments backed by cogent legal authorities, to prove the other allegations of voting without biometric verification, over-voting and also duplicate serial numbers on pink sheets which contains a chunk of the votes the petitioners are praying the court to annul.

The source explained that, the 2nd respondent throughout the 46 days the case has travelled so far have not denied the fact that there were some pink sheets that were not signed by presiding officers, adding “what has been the bone of contention of that claim is the quantum of of pink sheets that were not signed.”

“Whereas the petitioners claim 2,009 pink sheets, which in total affected 659,135 votes out of which 447,655 benefited President Mahama, and 197,628 votes also went to Nana Akufo-Addo, and thus, must be deducted, the EC on the other hand, said only 905 pink sheets were unsigned which amounted to 3.5 percent of the votes; so clearly the petitioners and the EC are on the same page, but the number of pink sheets is what the EC is contesting. ”

Sounding confident that the petitioners have bagged a goal with the EC’s admission of the claim ahead of the filing of addresses, the source was quick to add that the ‘central nervous system’of the lawsuit number J1/6/13 at the Supreme court will be the petitioners’ allegation on the non-signing of pink sheets by presiding officers, around which the assertive NPP legal brain said, other allegations will revolve.

“If you have the EC Chairman in the dock making such profound admissions, that must tell you that, the first thing the petitioners will point out in their address is the claim of non-signing of pink sheets by presiding officers, and soon as we clear that hurdle, all the others will follow suit, but I can tell you that, we will hold on that heavily in our address.”

In the midst of this stormy legal issue which the source claimed will form the bedrock on which the petitioners will mount their argument, the three respondents in their respective amended response file on February 26 this year to the petitioners second amended petition filed at the supreme court registry on February 7, 2013 quoted article 42 of the 1992 constitution which guarantees any citizen of Ghana the right to register and vote in any public election or referendum to counter the petitioners’ claim of absence of presiding officers’ signature on pink sheets.

The petitioners, throughout the three month trial have been praying the Justices of the Supreme Court to annul over four million votes declared by the EC at the last election on the notion that those votes were tainted over statutory violations, irregularities and malpractices bordering on over-voting, voting without biometric verification, same serial numbers on pink sheets, as well as unsigned pink sheets by EC officials.

They had, in December 28, 2012 when the petition was first filed at the Supreme court, called for the annulment of votes cast in 4,709 polling stations but amended their petition for the second time on February 9, 2013 after the court had granted them permission to do so and cited 11,916 polling stations as the total number of polling stations where alleged irregularities were recorded.

Later in the trial, the petitioners scaled down the number of pink sheets they were relying on to 11,138, but soon after the accounting firm, KPMG had submitted it reports on the behest of the Justices to count the number of unique pink sheets, lead counsel for the petitioners, Mr. Philip Addison in winding up his cross-examination of the EC boss on day 45 of the hearing which later stretched to today 46, narrowed the number of pink sheets down to 10, 081; out of which the petitioners insisted over four million votes must be annulled.

The Communication Directorate of the NPP in a statement issued shortly after the Supreme Court adjourned proceedings to July 31, explained that based solely on the 10, 081 polling stations captured in the KPMG report and part of the 11,138 polling stations the petitioners were relying on, the votes affected as a result of the constitutional and statutory violation of over-voting totaled 742,492.

Out of this number, the petitioners indicated that, 502,013 votes benefited President Mahama and would have to be deducted from his total declared votes whiles, 225,155 votes will equally have to be deducted from the votes of the 1st petitioner, Nana Akufo–Addo.

On the irregularity of voting without biometric verification, the petitioners alleged a total of 810,827 votes were affected, out of which 558,236 went in favor of President Mahama, and would thus, have to be annulled from his total votes declared whereas, 234,161 votes will similarly have to be deducted from the votes of Nana Akufo–Addo.

Touching on the infraction of absence of presiding officers’ signatures, which the source confidently said the petitioners will heavily depend on, Mr. Addison stated in court that, 659,135 votes were in total affected, and would have to be annulled from the total valid votes declared.

He informed the court that, 447,655 votes benefited President Mahama and would thus have to be annulled whiles, 197,628 votes would have to be deducted from the votes declared of Nana Akufo–Addo.

Capping the alleged infractions with the claims on duplicate serial numbers, the petitioners, through Mr. Addison informed the Law Lords that 3,499,308 votes were affected, and accordingly, 2,338,993 will have to be annulled from the total votes of the President whiles, 1,093,661 votes will be deducted from the votes of Nana Akufo–Addo.

The EC Chairman, Dr. Afari-Gyan at a press conference in Accra on January 9, 2013 to declare the winner of the December 7 and 8 elections stated that the NDC candidate, President Mahama won the polls by 5,574,761 out of the total votes cast representing 50.70% of the total valid votes cast whereas, Nana Akufo-Addo of the opposition New Patriotic Party came second with 5, 248, 898 votes representing 47.74% of the total valid votes cast.

The Supreme Court will reconvene on July 31, 2013 to listen to the addresses of both the petitioners and the three respondents after which the Justices are expected to fix a date in either mid or late August for the final ruling.