SUPREME COURT...ELECTION PETITION HEARING...Day 44: Half tym report!!!! Judges hearing the Presidential Election Petition seek to have a smooth cross examination after parties involved in the petition promised to use the week-end break to sort out the controversy over pink sheet exhibits which have delayed the hearing in many significant respects. On Day 44, Afari Gyan returns to the dock for another day and another bout of cross-examination. Addison is ready with his punches; Afari Gyan is ready with his wits. Quarshie Idun will look on with a perfect plot to object and distract Addison in the best way possible. Tsikata and maybe Dr Bamba will also be at the touchline ready to poke Addison where it hurts him the most. With a live texts on Myjoyonline, catch the drama, the twist and turns in another intriguing Supreme Court session set to change the country’s electoral process. Proceedings begin The judges have taken their seats high up the podium watching, listening to members of the Bar who are at the moment introducing their team of lawyers to the court. Dr Basit Bamba is again sitting-in for the Tony Lithur as lawyer for the first Respondent. Afari Gyan walks into the dock and is reminded of his oath by the clerk. Quarshie Idun is up. He says they received 547 pink sheets from the petitioners. Out of those there are many that are blank. If the Petitioners wish to proceed with these, they can do so. Basit Bamba also says they received a list but was not accompanied with any corresponding pink sheet. On Monday morning however they had a cursory examination of the pink sheets given to the second Respondent and as indicated, already quite a number of them are unclear as to the name and the polling station code. Tsatsu Tsikata says they also had lists but no pink sheets. After a random check of the 547 lists the EC was served with, they realised that some of the supplied pink sheet did not match list provide. Addison responds. He says they were unable to provide the pink sheets to the first and third Respondents due to genuine challenges they faced with printing of the pink sheets. He goes ahead with his cross examination of witness. He asks witness to look at the exhibit and confirm if they form part of the duplicated polling station codes. Afari Gyan confirms. He probes further if indeed the witness has gone to cross check his facts and claims he made last week to the effect that the polling stations with the same polling station codes are as a result of one being used for Special voting and the other for the main election. Afari Gyan says he has not checked because he did not promise the court he will check. Addison says he has checked and can confirm that none of them were used as special voting centres. Afari Gyan says he cannot confirm. Addison takes witness through the list in his possession and confirms one after the other, that no Special voting took place in the places which were bearing the same polling station code. He takes him to Savelugu, Talensi, Assin Bereku and other places and states emphatically that no Special voting took place in the places the list was suggesting Special Voting took place. Afari Gyan says he cannot say for sure whether Special Voting took place or not and makes it emphatically clear to the court that he did not say that every duplicated pink sheet code is necessarily as a result of Special voting. Addison suggests that these polling station codes all went into the declaration made by you Addison then hands witness an extract of the polling station register from the Mampong Constituency. Afari Gyan says it was necessarily from Mampong. Addison asks him to compare the pictures in the extract and those from the constituency register and see if they are the same. Afari Gyan confirms. He asks witness to see if the names Adwoa Gyamfoah and Afoa Abono appear in the register as well as the extract. Afari Gyan locates the pictures. Addison then asks witness to confirm if the two persons are one in same persons. Afari Gyan says as far as his eyes can see, they are the same but there has to be a finger tip test and some other tests to show as a matter of fact whether these two persons are one in the same persons. He says on sight they look the same but they have different ages. Adwoa Gyamfoah is 47 and Afoa Abono, 75. The pictures are the same. Philip Addison attempts to tender the register with the extract. But Afari Gyan raises an objection. He says it was not the register used for the election. Addison dares witness to prove that the register the EC provided the parties in soft copy PDF format is different from what the Petitioners have presented in court. Afari Gyan says he does not know what a PDF format is. He can say however that the EC provided the parties with the soft copies of the register in formats that makes it difficult to be altered. Addison says it is serious for the EC chair to suggest that the soft copy of the register in their possession is different from the one the EC provided to them. He shows to the court two hard drives which he says contain all the details of the soft copy of the register provided. The judges one after the other seek further explanation and clarity from the EC boss. Atuguba announces a short recess to ponder over the new controversy. Recess
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 12:36:21 +0000