According to the court the paragraphs in question have no bases in the pleadings of the petitioner.
Counsel for the 2nd Respondent Akufo-Addo, Akoto Ampaw who first raised the objections want 23 of the paragraphs dismissed on grounds that the issues relating to those paragraphs were not part of the petitioner’s pleadings.
But counsel for the petitioner insisted and argued the whole witness statement was founded on their pleadings.
The court eventually struck out the following five paragraphs;
Paragraph 4: It is my understanding also that the specific role of the Chairperson of the EC as the sole Returning Officer is provided for in the Constitution and in the same Regulations. Prior to her so-called declaration on 9th December 2020, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission did not perform the duties she was supposed to perform in order to be able to declare a winner of the election as she attempted to do. In the entire period after the election on 7th December 2020 she made a couple of very brief visits to the strong room.
Paragraph 5: The EC had a video documentary person recording events in the strong room and I have no doubt that, if that documentary is available in its authentic version, it will confirm what I am saying in this witness statement about things that occurred in the strong room.
Paragraph 6: Dedicated fax machines, printers and computers were provided for the strong room that were to receive faxes from fax machines at the regional collation centres in full view of agents of candidates and, then, projected on an overhead projector in the strong room, as the results were received. EC Officials manned the fax machines. On 9th December 2021, for many hours, the fax machines in the strong room were not working. One could see the frustration on the faces of many of the dedicated fax machine EC personnel. The fax transmission was also slow.
Paragraph 7: Instead of that pre-arranged transmission system for the regional collation sheets to be transmitted to the head office of the Electoral Commission, what happened part of the time was that one of the Deputy Director of the EC, Dr. Sereboe Quaicoe, would, from time to time, bring into the strong room what was claimed to be a regional collation sheet. How he got that sheet was not disclosed.
Paragraph 18: In respect of the Northern Region, we observed two regional results summary sheets were brought into the National Collation Centre strong room, one was without signatures of the agents for the candidates and the second had no signature of the NDC agent for the region, but had signatures for NPP, GUM, CPP and PPP. Only by getting the originals of these documents can there be clarity on exactly which is the genuine form from the region.
The case has been adjourned to Monday, February 8 when cross-examination of Rojo Mettle is expected to commence.
By P.D Wedam|3news.com|Ghana
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