By: Stephen A. Quaye.
When ex-president Jerry John Rawlings, once called for a lie detector test to be conducted on some New Patriotic Party ministers to prove their involvement in looting of state properties or otherwise, or be dragged to swear over Antoa Nyamaa, it became a big issue in Ghana.
Suppose his advice was heeded to and the practice of conducting lie detector test made common to catch state officials who go on looting the state are made public since it is 99 percent correct, it would have been easier to find out from the Electoral Commissioner Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan the truth from his double statement in declaring the 2012 election results which has become a big issue in the country now.
Following his double statement in population figures he declared in the last election some people are calling for a lie detector test to be conducted on Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan to ascertain the truth of the actual figures of the entire population that was recorded in the voters register which was used to conduct the 2012 general elections.
The simple question many Ghanaians are asking is whether the electoral commissioner has a double mouth which one speaks the truth and the other lies.
What is a lie? It is a statement made whereby the speaker knows that it is untrue. But how can one know that a statement made by a speaker was untrue? Unless the listener knows the exact answer otherwise the speaker tells lies and goes scot free.
In the case of the EC, it has been simply detected that the electoral body was giving conflicting results as far as the election results are concern therefore the NPP challenging it at the Supreme Court which a lie detector device could have made the electoral commissioner eaten his humble pie long ago.
Simply because when he declared the results of 2012 general elections on December 9, 2012, he said that 14,158,890 was the total number of the registered voters with 11,246,982 valid votes cast at 79.43 percent turn out even though the NPP challenged that the EC announced 13,917,366 as the total number of registered voters prior to the election.
How can the 238,000 votes affect voter turnout by increasing it to 80.15 percent from 79.43 percent and not the actual results released is also another question all needs to know the answer because definitely the added figure of persons voted and to which candidate did they vote for?
Before the EC’s breakdown of overseas voters register, many Ghanaian Canadians were on alert to double check the names and addresses of those who might appear on the list as those who registered and cast their votes.
Luckily, the breakdown did not include Canada as one of the countries where voters in overseas countries registered and voted so they are lying down quiet and watching proceedings as it unfolds at the Supreme Court of Ghana.
It is interesting to note the conflicting figures being given by Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan’s EC which justify the call for a lie detector test for him to come out with the truth that he cooked those figures to rig the election for the NDC.
End.