February 13, 2013 (Front page)
The petitioners contesting the declaration of President
Mahama as the winner of the December 2012 polls have submitted the names and
codes of 4,709 polling stations where alleged irregularities took place.
They have also filed the names and codes of the polling
stations where voting took place without biometric verification.
President John Dramani Mahama and the Electoral Commission
(EC), who are the first and second respondents in the petition are expected to
be served with the filed documents before the end of the week.
Pursuant to the court’s order on February 5, 2013, the petitioners are
expected to submit further and better particulars on the remaining 7,207
polling stations where the alleged irregularities took place within two weeks.
The petitioners have also filed the amended petition which
has increased the number of polling stations where alleged irregularities took
place from 4,709 to 11,916, thereby, making 11,916, the official figure in the
court’s records.
They filed the amendment following February 7, 2013
permission by the Supreme Court.
The Electoral Commission (EC), for its part, has complied
with the Supreme Court orders by answering questions posed by petitioners.
The petitioners, who are the presidential candidate of the
New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; his running mate, Dr
Mahamadu Bawumia, and the Chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, filed
a petition at the Supreme Court, dated December 28, 2012 and noted, among other
things, that irregularities recorded at 11,916 polling stations, favoured
President Mahama but President Mahama and the EC have denied the claims.
Answering interrogatories posed by the petitioners, a table
submitted by the EC said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted a total of
2,350 as members of staff, but the EC captured a total of 705 staff during the
registration process which took place between September and October 2012.
The EC explained in an answer to interrogatories posed by the
petitioners and filed at the Supreme Court registry Tuesday that, 55 persons
who registered in Accra, were staff serving in Ghanaian missions abroad but had
returned home.
It said the list of foreign service personnel, their
dependants, students on Ghana government scholarship abroad and Ghanaians
working with international organisations together with the locations and
proposed dates of registration was given by the EC to both the NPP and the NDC
before the registration abroad took place.
“Honourable Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh (NPP) and Mr George
Lawson (NDC), collected the material on behalf of their political parties in
the middle of September, 2012,” adding “no voting took place outside Ghana.”
Countries where registration exercise took place were London,
49; The Hague, 27; Moscow, 34; Berlin, 27; Geneva, 26; Rome, 16; Spain, 3;
Cuba, 15; Washington DC, 23; New York, 55; Brazil, 13; China, 20; Seoul, 22;
India, 17; Dubai, 19; Malaysia, 13, Addis Ababa, 36; Pretoria, 43; Rabat, 45;
Algiers, 28; Cairo, 20; Monrovia, 27, Dakar, 21; Abidjan, 13; Bamako, 11;
Abuja, 30 and Lome 7.
The Deputy Chairman in-charge of Finance and Administration
of the EC, Mr Amadu Sulley, said the initial provisional figure it announced of
registered voters was 13,917,366, but after the conduct of registration of
foreign service officials, students abroad on government scholarship, other
Ghanaians working abroad with international organisations and the late
registration of service personnel returning from international peacekeeping duties,
it announced that a “figure of 14,031,793 registered voters.
“This was the figure used in printing the final voters
copies which were given to the political parties. Following directives from the
court on decision regarding appeals from challenges and objections raised
during the exhibition of the provisional voters register under C.I. 72, the
number of registered voters stood at 14,031,680,” the EC stated.
According to the EC, “further directives received from the
court are yet to be incorporated into the register as well as the recent
registrations effected in the Kassena-Nankana District, following the order of
the High Court. This will alter the total number of registered voters.
“The voters register is dynamic, not static, particularly,
in this era of continuous registration as required by Regulation 9 (C. I. 72)”,
the EC added.
In answer to whether or not Nana Akufo-Addo or the NPP was
notified of the dates of registration abroad, the EC said “the respondent is
not obliged by law to allow political party representatives to be present
during registration exercises but has done so, in practice, as a courtesy and
to enhance transparency.
It was open to the political parties to have their
representatives present at the registration locations abroad if they had so
wished”, the EC added.
The petitioners on
January 31, 2013, amended their petition which they had filed on December 28,
2012, to request the Supreme Court to annul 4,670,504 valid votes cast during
the election at 11,916 polling stations where alleged irregularities were
recorded.
They have also introduced the claim that there were 28
locations where elections took place, which according to them, were not part of
the 26,002 polling stations created by the EC.
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