Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), has emphasized the importance of the presiding officer’s signature on the pink sheets before the declaration of results at the polling station.

The EC boss admitted that the failure to sign pink sheets by the Commission’s presiding officers engaged for the December 2012 presidential election “is an irregularity”.

He, however, told the Supreme Court hearing the landmark Presidential Election Petition which is challenging the validity of the EC’s declaration of John Dramani Mahama as President that: “even though the failure to sign is an irregularity, it will not affect the validity of the results”.

He also conceded the importance of the signature when he said some of the presiding officers who did not sign had to do it at the collation centre at the prompting of the returning officers, which is contrary to law, since at the time, the polling agents had all gone home.

Flashback

In early April, during the preparatory stages of the proceedings, EC’s Director of Finance and Administration, Amadu Sulley had sworn an affidavit to counter the petitioners’ claim that 2,009 pink sheets were not signed by the presiding officers.

The EC claimed that after being served with further and better particulars, it conducted an examination and analysis which showed that out of the 2,009 pink sheets that the petitioners claimed were unsigned, 1,009 were in fact signed by the Presiding Officers at the polling stations or at the instance of the Returning Officers, at the Collation Centres.

It further said 905 were unsigned, representing 3.5 per cent of the total number of pink sheets nationwide, and 1,989 pink sheets representing 99 per cent of the number claimed to be unsigned, were signed by the polling or counting agents of the candidates.

“Thus the 2nd respondent maintains that the request by the petitioners that votes cast at the said polling stations are invalid and should be deducted is without merit and should be refused,” the EC said in its amended answer.

“It should be noted that when several pages of papers impregnated without a carbon are used in order to have several copies of each page, it could happen that if the person signing or writing thereon does not press hard enough on the paper, the signature or writing could appear faint or illegible on some of the pages,” it added.

Evidence-in-chief

In his evidence-in-chief on Tuesday June 4, 2013, led by James Quashie-Idun, the Electoral Commission’s lead counsel, Dr Afari-Gyan told the court that the failure of those presiding officers to sign the pink sheets might be due to the fact that they (presiding officers) had so much to do on Election Day and could have forgotten to sign.

However, the law says that the presiding officer should authenticate the votes before announcing the results at the polling station.

Mr. Quashie-Idun: You are aware that the petitioners are claiming that votes should be annulled on the grounds that the presiding officers at some polling stations failed to sign the declaration of results form. Do you have any comment on that?

Dr. Afari-Gyan: Well, we have examined that claim, if I remember correctly. Originally the number of pink sheets said to be involved was 2,009. Now I see that the number has been scaled to about 1,800 and something.

When the number stood at 2,009, our analyses show that, in fact, the ones that were not signed were 905. When the numbers stood at 2,009 this 905 represented 3.5 per cent of the pink sheets and that would indicate that more than 96 per cent of the presiding officers signed the sheets.

We also noted that about 99 per cent of all agents signed the pink sheets. Incidentally, my lords, we have no officer called Assistant Presiding Officer. So when mention is made that it was not signed by the presiding officer or his assistant, there is no officer called assistant presiding officer. So it is only the presiding officer who can sign. Apart from the presiding officer, it is the candidates’ agents who can sign.

These are the only two people who can sign. So nobody could sign on behalf of the presiding officer. I think we should also bear in mind that the presiding officer has a lot of work on Election Day.

He performs a lot of duties, signing the pink sheet is only one (of them). He supervises the election all day, he is the one who makes the entries on the pink sheet, he is the one that will count the ballots in open public and he is the one that announces the results.

Mr. Quashie-Idun: And these results are for?

Dr. Afari-Gyan: The candidates. He will sort out the candidates and announce the results as to who has won or not. So the presiding officer has a lot of duties, signing is only one of them. So we as the Commission, take a view. We acknowledge the fact that some of the pink sheets were not signed and have given you an indication of the contents. But we take the view that when he has performed all these other duties and the form has been signed by the candidates, even though that failure to sign is an irregularity, it will not affect the validity of the results and therefore from the point of view of the commission where the presiding officer has not signed, but the agent has signed, we accept the results.

Addison Vrs Afari-Gyan

During cross-examination on Wednesday, July 10, 2013, when Philip Addison, lead counsel for the petitioners, suggested to Dr. Afari-Gyan that there were more than 905 unsigned pink sheets, the EC boss insisted it was 905, prompting Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo, a member of the nine-member panel to intervene, asking the parties to put it in their addresses.

Dr. Afari-Gyan: My lords, I have one observation. You may recall that I did say that some of the pink sheets were signed at the collation centre at the instance of the Returning Officers.

Justice William Atuguba (presiding): Signed at the collation centre at the instance of whom?

Dr. Afari-Gyan: The Returning Officer.

Mr. Addison: My lords, our case is that they have admitted 905 and we say that more than 905 pink sheets are unsigned and this is the evidence we are providing to the court. Each of these pink sheets is unsigned, that is our case; and if he disputes it we will put the pink sheets to him to see that there is no signature.

Justice Akoto-Bamfo: And Mr. Addison, I think you can address on this issue. Your case is that these pink sheets were never signed, he is saying well some were signed later we have to attach whatever weight.

Afari-Gyan on Errors

Mr. Quashie-Idun: You mentioned in your evidence some of the errors that were committed by presiding officers in completion of the pink sheets. Do you have a general comment on that?

Dr. Afari-Gyan: My general comment will be that the errors must be looked at very closely in order to be able to reveal their true meaning. I must say that at the end of the day, it is the Electoral Commission that appointed these people, these officials and we are prepared to take responsibility for their actions. But errors are to be distinguished from intentional wrongdoing.

A mistake is something that can be detected and corrected and we all make mistakes. So we take responsibility for their actions, so that we will keep in mind, may be all of us make one mistake or the other in the course of our work, but I will also hope that the candidates will take responsibility for the agents they appoint.

NDC Admits Unsigned Pink Sheets

When Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, NDC general secretary, testified on behalf of President Mahama and his party, he also admitted that some of the pink sheets were not signed by the presiding officers.

Led in evidence by NDC lead counsel Tsatsu Tsikata, he said even though some of the EC officials did not sign the pink sheets, the party’s agents all wrote their names and in some cases, they signed the documents.

Mr. Tsikata: You are also aware that reference has been made to pink sheets on which there is no signature of the presiding officer at the polling station?

Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah: Yes, my lords, I am aware of that allegation.

Mr. Tsikata: What is your response to that?

Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah: My lords, it is true that we are all trained by the 2nd respondent that at the close of polls after sorting and tallying votes to the candidates you have all the party agents including the presiding officers who must sign; then there is a declaration; then after the declaration each party agent is given a copy of the pink sheet; and the presiding officer has a duty of conveying the results at the polling stations to the collation centre. So, my lords, I am aware that there is a requirement that the presiding officer must sign.

My lords, after we received the petition we studied the petition, but we realized that a lot of polling stations where these lack of signature has been alleged, we found out that the agent actually wrote their names. In other polling stations, they actually signed but there were other polling stations the polling agents did not sign and where the presiding officers did not sign. But, my lords, in all these places, the polling agents actually certified the work of the presiding officer and I cannot contemplate a situation where you are engaged in doing a duty and after that duty you present it to witnesses who certify that you have done well and then you refuse to stand by your own words. And my lords these signatures must be obtained before the declaration and in all the polling stations that are in contention, declaration actually took place and my check has revealed that collation has taken place unchallenged in all these cases.