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Additional affidavits filed on April 29, 2013 by Amadu Sulley, deputy chairman of the Electoral Commission, and subsequently by some returning officers, admit to a very critical aspect of the case of the petitioners in the ongoing presidential election petition hearing, where petitioners are asking for some 4.3 million votes to be annulled for various infractions which allegedly occurred in the December 2012 poll. In a supplementary affidavit of Mr Sulley, filed on behalf of the EC, the Commission concedes that returning officers in three Regions annulled results from, at least, six polling stations, specifically, because some voting were allowed without biometric verification or there was simply over-voting. It describes the two scenarios as "excess ballots over biometric verification device." A total of 2,605 votes were counted and shared in the six polling stations. Only 13 of the 2,605 of votes cast were either without biometric verification or affected by over-voting. Petitioners insist that over 1,500 polling station results have been affected either by over-voting or voting without biometric verification. Among the places admitted by the EC is the Arabic Primary School, Asuokaw (A) in the West Akim constituency, Eastern Region. There, out of 780 votes cast, one person voted without being biometrically verified. Going by instructions issued by the Chairman of the EC and with agreements from all political parties, all the 780 votes from that polling station was cancelled. Again, the EC concedes that in three polling stations in the Nalerigu Gambaga constituency where 1,680 votes were cast and recorded, four were in excess, (more than the number of people verified to vote), thus, illegal and in direct breach of Constitutional Instrument 75, the law that governed the election, which insisted that every voter had to be biometrically verified. So, the returning officer duly cancelled the results. In Mr Sulley's supplementary affidavit, the EC says the annulments only came to the attention of its headquarters on April 7, 2013 when they read the affidavit of Mahamudu Bawumia, then 2nd petitioner. Also, the EC says its regional directors in two of the affected Regions, Eastern and Northern, namely Messrs Paul Boateng and Mr Sylvester Kanyi, respectively, were also not made aware of the annulments by the returning officers concerned. In support of this position, the EC has secured and filed affidavits from two returning officers and a presiding officer who confirm that the results from the affected polling stations were annulled but go on to add that they did not inform their regional directors before the annulments. The affidavit, sworn to on April 28 and filed at the Supreme Court Registry on May 9, 2013, by Sylvester Kanyi, the EC's regional director for the Northern Region, reads: "That at the close of counting of votes in 4 polling stations in Nalerigu/Gambaga constituency on the 7th Dec. 2012, one extra ballot paper was found in each of those 4 ballot boxes in respect of the presidential election." He goes on to say that "due to confrontation by party agents at the constituency collation centre on these extra ballots, it was decided that the results of the 4 polling stations be cancelled and it was done without my knowledge." No such denial has come from the Brong Ahafo regional director of the EC. The EC, in Mr Sulley's supplementary affidavit, also admits that in the Roman Catholic Church, Kutre No. 1 polling station in the Berekum East constituency, 8 out of the 154 votes cast, were cast without biometric verification. However, the Berekum East returning officer, Iddrisu Adam Abass, also swore to an affidavit on April 27, confirming that he annulled the votes from R/C Church Kutre No. 1 when "it was decided that the number of ballots counted exceeded that of the BVD by eight votes." He added, "upon confirmation by the presiding officer, Mr Kwaku Abina Charles, the result of the polling station was not included in the collation." Mr Charles Abinah also swore an affidavit the same there saying, "At the close of the voting on 7th December 2012, it was realized that the ballot papers in the ballot box were 161, whilst that of the BVD machine recorded 153, giving a difference of 8 ballots." "At the collation centre, the NPP agent objected to the results and the returning officer did not add the said result to the tally. No authorization was sought from the regional office or headquarters." In addressing the general public at a news conference on December 5, two days before the 2012 general elections, the Chairman of the EC and chief returning officer of the presidential poll, Kwadwo Afari-Djan, stated: "Let me also share with you some of the firm decisions that we have taken together with the political parties: NO VERIFICATION NO VOTING. And by verification we mean everybody will have to be verified biometrically. We have agreed in principle that where the voters found in the ballot box outnumber the persons verified to vote the results of that polling station will be cancelled."