Parliamentary results not used in analysis � Dr Bawumia

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, on Monday rejected claims by Mr Tony Lithur, Counsel for President John Mahama that the addition of a parliamentary result to their exhibit was an attempt by the petitioners to bloat their figures. Even though Dr Bawumia, running mate to Nana Akuffo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 general election, identified the anomaly when it was shown to him, he insisted that the parliamentary results were not used in the analysis of the petitioners. Dr Bawumia made this assertion, when Mr Tony Lithur, Counsel for President John Mahama continued with his cross-examination of the second petitioner. He explained that they had reduced their evidence from 11,824 to 11, 138 and so cannot easily determine whether what is being shown to him is part of the over 600 initial evidence that had been dropped from the case. He also rejected the claims of the respondents that there cannot be violations and irregularities such as over voting and voting without biometric verification since the petitioners polling agents were present at the polling stations. Dr Bawumia said though their polling agents may be present at the polling stations, they do not have the powers like the presiding officers and that they are just observers at the place. He further discarded the claim by Mr Tony Lithur that the petitioners were aware of the �22 ghost polling stations� in addition to the 26,002 polling stations and even sent their polling agents to those places to take part in the elections. He said whether their polling agents endorsed the result in those polling stations or not, it must be established that those 22 polling stations were within the country. Earlier, Mr Tony Lithur, had asked for a full count of the pink sheets submitted by the petitioners as evidence in their election petition. He said the admission by Dr Bawumia during the cross-examination that some of the pink sheets were duplicated calls for a full count. He said the number of pink sheets available to the respondents shows that the number of pink sheets submitted was not up to the 11, 138 as claimed by the petitioners. �We respectfully plead at this stage to have a referee appointed to count the pink sheets that have been submitted as exhibits to this court. We make this application because right from the application for further and better particulars, when they were provided, we indicated that the petitioners had not provided the particulars of all the polling stations. The number of pink sheets, based on which this whole suit had been filed has not been made available to us and to the court either, as has been shown by the cross examination,� he said. Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, Counsel for NDC supported the request by Mr Lithur for a full count of the pink sheets since the petitioners case is based on these evidence. He called for an independent body to verify the number of pink sheets submitted by the petitioners. Mr James Quarshie Idun, Counsel for the Electoral Commission (EC), who also concurred with Mr Lithur, said there was the need for the court to count the pink sheets submitted by the petitioners, to know whether it was 8,421 as claimed by the NDC or the 11,138 as maintained by the petitioners. Mr Philip Addison, Counsel for the petitioners said although they are not opposed to the audit of the pink sheets, it was necessary to go further by auditing the total votes. He also said the petitioners have already submitted a CD-ROM which shows that none of the pink sheets were duplicated in their analysis of the votes. �We are also of the view that there should be an audit of the polling stations and the votes. For us what is important is the number of votes, not so much the number of polling stations.� he added The judges after a short recess overruled the request by the lawyers for the respondents for a full audit of the pink sheets submitted by the petitioners, saying that, a recount would not affect the case for now. Besides they are at liberty to re-apply.