"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."- Shakespeare’s Hamlet. . There has been a consistent campaign by some, that the thousands of electoral forms presented by the petitioners; Mr Akuffo Addo, Dr Bawumia and Mr Obetsebi Lamptey on behalf of the NPP, challenging the Presidential Elections 2012, most of which are unauthenticated are insignificant. If that is the case, why is there such an incessant barrage against their bid.

On the morning of 7th and 8th December, 2012 an excessive number of people calmly walked into election centres right across the nation, including the Central Collating Office of the Electoral Commission. No one questioned them because they were supposed to be election officials. However, all these individuals, hundreds of them, all at different parts of the electoral system, did not authenticate or leave their “personal identification mark” [signature].

None of the observers picked this up and a million more would still not have picked it up, because everything was calm, just as it was supposed to be. Yet on that day, there were hundreds of supposed electoral officials whom no one can identify, because they left no forwarding address or identifying mark. These individuals received, transmitted and collated information right through the elections and no one can verify who they were or whether they actually transmitted, received or collated the information they were supposed to handle.

All we have had up till now, is some poor souls who have allegedly been dragged to authenticate some top sheets, because their name were put against some election centres as officials. But were they really present on that day? I cannot comprehend how anyone, let alone hundreds of people can fail to append a simple signature, certifying that they were present at a station and checked all processes they were assigned to observe.

It is also inconceivable, the explanation that a large number of electoral officials were not properly trained. How much training does any adult of a sound disposition need, to sign a single document? If you need more than a minute to learn to sign a single document, you have a very serious problem. I believe we would be doing some people a disservice if we draw such a conclusion.

There are two possibilities why there will be such a widespread non performance of a primary duty. Either the personalities present were not who they were claiming to be or the actual people who had to sign were not present. Dr Afari Gyan has stated that there were a lot of temporary staff for the process and attributed the lapses to them and their lack of adequate training.

I will never seek to question the integrity of Dr Gyan, but there are some pretty hard questions, the answers to which he might find difficult. Some activities were seriously out of kilter and were so mundane that most people missed it or were totally unaware of. Either way, if he had any knowledge of them, it might raise the suggestion that he was complicit and if he was ignorant of those, it will point to the assertion that he had no control.

Can Dr Gyan verify who these characters were or whether they actually transmitted, received or collated the information in the manner they were supposed to handle it? If he does not, someone obviously did.

The Captain goes down with the ship, but a good Captain must never go down for the actions of a mutinous crew. If things went wrong which he is now aware of, he will do himself a good turn not to become embroiled in it. Very soon, we shall learn if he ran a naval type frigate [necessary for an election], or he was at the helm of a schooner of buccaneers.

Most of the people attacking the NPP would want them to believe that, if there are no chaotic scenes at an election and the place is brimming with observers and representatives, then it means the elections are free and fair. We would be quick to discount this explanation and also the statement that, appended personal identification marks only appeared on the top sheets of the electoral forms.

Even if you failed your foundation examination in mathematics [on probability] or did not study the relative effects of pressure in physics, you cannot fail to appreciate the fact that the likelihood of everyone else’s signature appearing on all documents except those of electoral officials is not feasible and more so, when you consider that it happened in thousands of instances with the same result. You cannot even apply an “axiom of choice” and that is very advanced mathematics.

I would seriously advice against anyone coming before a panel of nine of the world’s finest legal thinkers, and making an attempt to proffer such an explanation.

I don’t know if this elections were free and fair, but I would want to hear answers to specific questions about some of the issues raised by the petitioners. Those answers have not been forthcoming and all we have had is how important and accountable everybody else is, except the electoral officials. …and just to make it even more irritating we have instances of insults, caustic remarks and people using court documents like “Frisbees” [!] [It just beggars belief…].

The protests, attacks and vilifications will change nothing. The matter is before the courts and we wait. The importance or significance of documents and actions, will be determined sometime in the near future, by nine of the world’s finest legal thinkers.

This is nation building and a foundation for a better future.

Jedd Rii

Link: aabicoleridge@live.co.uk