On “Face Only” Voters

“I don’t know where he got that figure from”, was how strongly the Electoral Commissioner, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, deflated Dr Mahamadu Bawumia’s claims on the number of voters registered as “Face Only” (FO).

Dr Bawumia who is the star witness of the NPP in the on-going Supreme Court petition had claimed in court that the Electoral Commission (EC) registered only 3,196 people who were categorized as FO’s.

But in a strong rebuttal, Dr Afari Gyan who was giving his evidence in chief on behalf of the EC informed the court that the number of FO’s was in excess of 70,951 which if proven to be true is more than 2,220% as compared to the figure churned out by Dr Bawumia.

Explaining to the court how the EC decided to create that categorization of FO voters, Dr Afari Gyan stated that during the time of the biometric registration, the EC realized that there were some people who did not have fingers at all. Those people he said were classified as people suffering from permanent trauma.

Dr Afari Gyan further stated that there were others who had fingers alright but for some unknown reasons the biometric machines were not able to capture their fingers which led them to be classified as people suffering from temporary trauma. “These two groups of people were all categorized as FO’s”, Dr Gyan stressed.

Therefore, Dr Afari Gyan wondered how Dr Bawumia was able to come out with that low figure of 3.196 FOs when he does not know the details. He stated emphatically that even the lowest region with FOs has more than 3,000 people.

Mr Philip Addison, the lead counsel for the NPP, who realized that Dr Afari Gyan was cutting the NPP deep with these facts raised an objection, claiming that the matters being discussed by Dr Afari Gyan were not stated anywhere in the pleadings or affidavits of the Second Respondents. But Mr James Quarshie-Idun who was leading Dr Afari Gyan in his evidence rephrased his question and thereby allowed Dr Afari Gyan to further explain to Ghanaians the issues concerning the FOs.

Dr Afari Gyan who sounded like an authority on electoral laws and kept the court spellbound with his minute details of electoral issues, told the court that the list of FOs has even shot up by 62 following the registration of people in the Kassena Nankana District.

The Electoral Commissioner’s discrediting of the FO numbers churned out by Dr Bawumia clearly puts a huge wedge in the NPP claims that the EC bloated the number of FOs which helped in tilting the presidential results in favour of President John Mahama.

The FO issue is another area which has seen the NPP reeling under pressure following the punching of holes in their claim.

nakuakoduah@yahoo.com