[ 2013-07-29 ]

Pink Sheets Signature Important – Afari-Gyan
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.

Source - William Yaw Owusu

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