Asiedu Nketiah Is Relying Solely On Experience - Gloria Akuffo

Member of the legal team for the petitioners in the election petition case, Gloria Akuffo has accused the star witness for the first and third respondents, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, of sidelining majority of the facts and relying on his experience as the election petition hearing continues. Speaking after the adjournment of the hearing of the election petition case, Madam Akuffo indicated that despite the existence of available facts, Mr. Nketia limited himself to only a select few. Citing an example, Gloria Akuffo noted: �He thinks the only instance of over voting is when the ballots exceed the number of registered voters whereas we can decipher two others. At the beginning of the polls the Electoral Commission supply�s a number of ballots to the polling stations which constitutes about 10 percent more than the number of registered voters to make allowance for spoilt ballots. There is also an instance where the actual ballot issued is also separate so you can have a situation where the number of vote in the ballot box may exceed the number of registered voters or it may exceed the number of ballots issued at the beginning of the polls or exceed the number of ballots actually issued to qualified voters who would have gone through prior biometric verification. There are many instances of over voting hence, Mr. Nketia must not limit it to only one.� According to Madam Akufo, despite his experience, Mr Nketia eventually admitted there had been irregularities during the election, a position he had denied previously. �When he was pushed to say what it amounts to where the ballots exceed the number of ballots issued, he did say there was the possibility of the existence of some strange materials in the box. What is even significant is that, he says that, it could be, he tried to stay away from describing it as over votes. He was trying to run away from saying specifically what it amounted to.� "On serial numbers," she continued, "he suggested he did not know what serial numbers were, thus, he acknowledged that there are serial number ballot issued on the pink sheet he did not even know. For someone of his experience it seemed strange. So it was confirmed on his affidavits where he had made declarations regarding these same serial numbers." Meanwhile, hearing of the election petition case resumes on Wednesday.