Petitioners' counsel Philip Addison continues his cross-examination of the second Respondent’s witness Dr. Afari Gyan in the epic hearing of the Presidential Election Petition at the Supreme Court. Philip Addison has in the past two sittings challenged the witness' credibility on issues of over-voting and voting without the use of the biometric verification machine in the 2012 presidential elections. He is set to cover other areas like no signature and double serial numbers which are all contained in allegations of irregularities by the petitioners. Today marks round three of his cross-examination. The bench is set and so is the bar. Proceedings begin; President of the Judges William Atuguba informs the court about an impending meeting between referee for the audit of the pink sheet exhibits, KPMG and the parties. He says the meeting will later take place 2:00 pm. However shortly after the President's announcement, the president is handed a letter by the Registrar in which the Petitioners are seeking a postponement of the meeting to Tuesday. First and Second Respondents would rather the meeting is held today due to other engagements. Philip Addison agrees to withdraw the letter and abide by the court's decision. The meeting is therefore scheduled for Monday 2:00 pm. Addison continues his cross examination by asking witness if he recalls making an admission that there were 50 double registrations in the compilation of foreign registrations. Afari Gyan admits again. Addison asks further when he discovered the double registration. Afari Gyan says the petitioners brought drew his attention to it. Addison then asks witness what he did about the double registrations. Afari Gyan says those names only appeared once in the registers sent to the parties at the polling stations. Addison suggests to witness that the double registrations still appeared in the register. Afari Gyan dis agrees. BVD MACHINES BVD machines reinforces the principle of one man, one vote isn't it? Addison asks. Yes that is the case, Afari Gyan answers. So the machine is to ensure no one person votes more than once, isn't it? Addison adds. Yes, Afari Gyan says. Addison goes into FO (Face Only) verification. NB FOs are the category of voters who could only be verified by the use of photographs but not by the use of the biometric verification machines. They are physically challenged persons who have no fingers. Do you agree that in the register given to the NPP there were only a little over 3,000 people categorised under FO verification. No, Afari Gyan says. He adds that the register given to the NPP was the same given to the other parties and had over 70,000 people in the category of F0. Addison makes reference to a statement which says the the register given to the NPP was different to the one given to the NDC before the election. Afari Gyan contests that statement and so too will his lawyer, Quarshie Idun. Tsatsu Tsikata is up on his feet raising an objection to that assertion. He says no where has it been stated in the court that two different registers were given to the NPP and NDC. Addison produces the Proceedings of May 28 p14 as well as the Paragraph 8 of the Second amended answer to second amended petition filed on 3 April, 2013 in which the second Respondent gave a figure representing the total number of people on the Register. Addison argues that the figure contained in the amended answer agrees with that of the figure mentioned by Asiedu Nketia of the NDC. However, the star witness for the second respondent mentioned another figure which agrees with the one provided by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. On that basis Addison says he has ample evidence to make the statement that the register given to the NPP is different from the ones given to the NDC. Tsatsu disagrees but Addison continues with cross examination. He proceeds to make reference to the petitioners' analysis. Afari Gyan says he does not recall any analysis presented to him. Addison asks further if he knows the number of ballots printed for the 2012 elections. Afari Gyan says he cannot exactly remember the figure. Addison asks if he has checked on the number of printing houses who printed the ballot papers. Afari Gyan says seven. Addison probes further by asking if all the parties were represented at all the printing houses. Afari Gyan says Yes. Addison asks if the parties were informed of it and by what means. Afari Gyan says the parties were written to officially. Addison asks witness to produce that letter tomorrow; Afari Gyan obliges to the request. Do you recall the names of the printing houses, Addison asks. Afari Gyan mentions the names of the printing houses. Addison again makes reference to the analysis that was given to the witness last week and says per the 11,115 polling stations in contention, the difference between the number of registered voters as per the EC's register given to the NPP and that as stated on the pink sheets there is a difference of 962,888. Afari Gyan says he does not know the basis for the assertion being made by the petitioners. Addison throws it back at him that the basis upon which the analysis is made is the figures on the register as well as those on the pink sheets. Quarshie Idun raises an objection which is of no effect as Addison continues with his cross examination. Addison says the total number of registered voters in the 11,115 polling station is 11,511,207 so if the court is to go by the assertion of the witness that means the number of ballots printed is ten per cent of the total number of registered voters then the number of ballots printed should be around 15 million. Quarshie-Idun raises an objection which again is of no effect. Addison claims per their analysis, over 80 per cent of ballot papers were printed and sent to the various polling stations, instead of the ten percent the Commission itself agreed. Addison asks witness if he registered. Afari Gyan says he is registered voter. Addison asks if he filled form 1A. Afari Gyan says a registration officer filled it for him. Special Voting Addison asks if all the special voting took place at a polling station. Gyan says not all the special voting took place at polling stations. Addison asks if those special voting centres had code numbers. Afari Gyan says some did; some did not. Addison suggests that even where special voting occurred in polling stations it is regarded as a special voting and had no codes. Addison proceeds to Special Voters List and asks for names of people who appeared in the Special voters list. Afari Gyan gives a category of people classified under special voting and says people who due to their work may not be able to vote on voting day are made to vote early. Does it include polling agents, Addison asks; Afari Gyan says by the interpretation of the law No. So such people are security officers and electoral officers right? Addison probes further. Yes, Afari Gyan answers. Addison: What is the average number of special voting centres in a constituency? At least one Afari Gyan answers. Addison: Who mans the special voting. Temporary officers of the EC, Afari Gyan answers. Addison asks further if it the same officer who presides over polling station centres during special voting are the same people who man the centre during regular voting. Afari Gyan says if the person is a presiding officer he will be the same person to man the polling station during the regular election. Addison says pink sheets are not used in the special voting. That is not correct, Afari Gyan answers. There is no mention of pink sheet in the regulation, Addison posits. Special voting occurs at polling stations and so they use the same regulations of a polling station, Afari Gyan emphasises. Addison says results of special voting are recorded directly on the collation form but Afari Gyan says no. They are first recorded on the pink sheet before results are transferred onto the collation sheet. Addison presents a document to the witness to identify. He does. Counsel suggests after witness identifies the document that with the exception of special voting results of all other results are entered on pink sheet before being entered into the collation sheets. Afari Gyan agrees. There is no polling station code in respect of special voting, Addison says that is correct, Afari Gyan answers. Addison presents a training manual to the witness and suggests to him that nowhere in the manual is it stated that results of special voting be recorded on pink sheets. Afari Gyan disagrees. He says all results of elections- be they regular or special voting- are recorded on pink sheets before being transferred onto the collation forms. Show us in the manual where it states that results must be filled on pink sheet. Quarshie Idun raises an objection asking “must everything stated in the manual?” Afari Gyan says anybody who works in the capacity of the presiding officer knows what to do with a pink sheet. Addison asks if every voter is assigned to a polling station, Afari Gyan says Yes. Addison asks if by implication it means that once somebody applies to be on a special voters list his name still remains on the original register at his polling station and would not be transferred to a newly designated station. Afari Gyan affirms. Proceedings on recess. Court Returns Numbers on Ballot Papers and pink sheets Addison asks witness to tell the court the relevance of the serial numbers on ballot papers and on pink sheets. Afari Gyan says the numbers on the ballot papers are sensitive materials. Ballot papers and pink sheets are not in the same category of sensitivity. There are different degrees of sensitivity. A pink sheet with nothing written on it is not as sensitive as that on the ballot paper. Addison: Where was the pink sheets printed. It was printed abroad but does not know where exactly which country it was printed. Addison: Did you bother to find out where it was printed; No printing house in Ghana had the capacity to print the pink sheet but i didn't ask, Afari Gyan answers. He adds that Buck Press was contracted to get the pink sheets printed abroad. Addison: Were the parties told that the pink sheets were going to be printed as the EC did with the ballot papers. No because it is not everything we have to tell the parties, Afari Gyan answers. Addison: Did you request for numbers to be printed on the pink sheets? Yes. Addison: How many pink sheets did you order to be printed. 27,000 booklets of pink sheets with each containing 18 individual sheets were ordered. The technical staff decided it will be difficult to write on the first sheet to make it legible in duplicated copies. So they decided to print two sets. Addison: How many booklets were printed for the Parliamentary elections. The maximum printed was 12, Afari Gyan answers. Addison: Can you tell the court why that was not possible for the presidential elections? Afari Gyan says at the time they were going into elections it appeared they were going to be more than eight presidential candidates. Four were disqualified and decided to take the commission to court and lost. There were two others who threatened to go to court but did not. There were several others who took nomination forms but never showed up. So in effect over 16 presidential candidates were being considered that is why we ordered 18 sheets. Addison: At the time the order for the printing of the pink sheet the balloting for the placement of candidates on the pink sheets had been done. With regards to items that are bought from abroad, orders are made quite early so printing could not have started until after the ballot had taken place, Afari Gyan answers. Addison wonders how the EC still ordered for two sets of the pink sheets to be printed even after they had settled on the number 8 as presidential candidates instead of the 18 initially expected. Addison presents a document for witness to identify. Afari Gyan identifies it as the pink sheet or the statement of poll and declaration of results. Addison asks witness if he sees the names of the candidates on the form. Afari Gyan answers yes. Addison asks witness to tell the court how many pages are provided on the pink sheet to which the witness gives an answers 8. It is 8 not 18 is that right, Addison asks sarcastically. Afari Gyan says if the EC had known that the number of candidates were 8 they would not have ordered for 18 booklets. Addison you printed a second set of pink sheets right? Afari Gyan affirms. And the second set was it the same as the first set in all material particulars, Addison asks; Afari Gyan says the second set was supposed to be a continuation of the first. Addison: Were the second set a matter of fact, a continuation of the first? No, Afari Gyan replies. Addison says the reason Afari Gyan gave earlier that there could be more candidates that was why they printed 18 sheets could not be true because if that were the case, the second set would have blank spaces or different names for the last 8 spaces on the pink sheets. Afari Gyan says that assertion is false. Addison presents to the witness a document to identify. Afari Gyan identifies the document as the second Respondents' second amended answer to the second amended petition made on April 14. Addison asks him to read paragraph 18A. Afari Gyan reads and Myjoyonline.com paraphrases as follows: In preparation towards the 2012 election, the second Respondent estimated it would receive between 12 to 18 nominations of presidential candidates. Accordingly the the EC decided to issue to each polling station two sets of pink sheets in two booklets each bearing the same serial number in each booklets containing 9 carbonised sheets for candidates 1-9 and for candidates 10-18 respectively to ensure that each booklet will not be too thick and would not render the carbonisation ineffective. At the close of presidential nominations 8 valid presidential nominees were received by the EC. Addison asks witness that at the close of nominations there were 8 valid presidential candidates and yet they [EC] ordered for 27,000 copies of pink sheets. Afari Gyan says Yes the pink sheets were ordered quite earlier because it was coming from abroad so they had to ordered earlier. Addison: The numbering of the pink sheet is from 1-54,000. I don't think so Afari Gyan answers.