.....On Unknown Polling Station Allegation

By Nana Akua Tweneboah-Koduah

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Co. made a bizarre allegation when they filed the Supreme Court petition case challenging the results of the 2012 Presidential Election, that the Electoral Commission (EC) created 28 unknown polling stations to favour President John Mahama.

To the NPP, they have no clue where those polling stations were, therefore, they want the Supreme Court (SC) to cancel the votes from the supposed unknown polling stations. But during cross-examination, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, the NPP star witness, who made that bogus and weird allegation, caved in and stated that he has redone his homework so the number of the so-called unknown polling stations was no longer 28 but 22.

When he was further put on the microscopic view, Bawumia could not produce any evidence to support that bogus claim until the respondents flashed some letters into his hands in the witness box.

Dr Bawumia, who at that point looked bemused, read portions of the letter, and it was at that point that the whole world came to the realization that that letter was written and signed by then NPP flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo. The letter actually was directing the NPP’s polling agents to some of the supposed unknown polling stations which the NPP claims they have no clue of.

It was a humiliating experience, but the NPP who could not explain why they wrote letters directing their agents to polling stations which they claim are unknown to them, still soldiered on with their bogus allegation.

But Mr Tony Lithur, counsel for President Mahama will not let the NPP take a pass in this roguish behaviour when he hit them hard during his oral address at the Supreme Court.

Mr Lithur thundered, “When you claim there were polling stations at which voting took place which were not part of the list of 26,002 polling stations provided by the Electoral Commission, the simple question is what were your polling agents doing there, if the stations were unknown to you and to them?”

President Mahama’s lawyer also asked the NPP to tell the whole world who applied for authorization for the NPP polling agents who worked at the supposed ghost polling stations. “Who applied for accreditation for them to perform functions on your behalf at those polling stations?”

Mr Lithur further asked, “And where did you get your pink sheets relating to those polling stations from, with signatures of your polling agents on them? Why didn’t they complain in prescribed manner?”

Mr Lithur who wondered how NPP agents found their way to the supposed unknown polling stations and witnessed the voting, counting and declaration of the results in those stations was simply amazed as to how the NPP agents were able to perform all those tasks and yet Nana Akufo-Addo could feign that he has no clue about the existence of those polling stations.

Mr Lithur continued by asking another question, “Why didn’t the polling agents complain on the pink sheets or by signing irregularity forms? Where is the list of 26,002 polling stations that was given to you by the Electoral Commission? Wouldn’t the court need to see the list before determining whether or not they formed a part?”

The President’s lawyer then went on to dunk Akufo-Addo, “Taking the Petitioners on right on their own turf, doesn’t the evidence on the face of the pink sheet weigh heavily against them?”

We have had the NPP floating multiple allegations not backed by any hard core evidence, but believing that the SC justices will use the law of probability to coast them to victory. That is why the NPP folks have been able to deceive their supporters and gotten their hopes and expectations highly buoyed that they have the case under wraps and therefore going to win it hands down.

These days it is very common to see or hear NPP supporters floating different scenarios and openly saying that they do not need the SC justices to make a determination on all the litany of allegations they have made. “All we need is for the court to annul the votes on unsigned pink sheets, and Nana Akufo-Addo will be president”, is now the common mantra by the NPP supporters.

Others float this picture, “If the SC annuls the votes in the unknown polling stations, we win the elections.” We still have others who claim that, “We have close to 3 million votes that would be cancelled by the SC because of duplicated serial numbers on the pink sheets. Therefore, in whatever way you look at it NPP wins.”

It is this day-dreaming attitude by the NPP hierarchy and supporters that are preventing them from taking a deeper dive into their own allegations that are not backed by a single shred of hard core evidence, and benchmark those allegations against the defence mounted by the respondents.

Mr Lithur said it all. If you don’t know of a polling station you don’t write a letter directing your agent to that polling station. If you also don’t know of a polling station, it would be difficult for your polling agent to show up at that polling station on Election Day. It would even be unthinkable for your polling agent to witness the voting, counting and declaration of results at a polling station you don’t know.

And to crown it all, your polling agent will not be in a position to sign and get a copy of a pink sheet from a polling station that was created at your blindside. You can make such a wild but unfounded allegation only if you are called Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and probably practicing magic.

nakuakoduah@yahoo.com