The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is now moving into the constituencies to collect copies of the Statement of Polls and Declaration of Results sheets, popularly called Pink Sheets, which were issued to agents of political parties in the various polling stations at the just-ended December 7, 2020 general election.
They are currently claiming the election was stolen from them, and for which reason their presidential candidate, former President John Dramani Mahama, has refused to concede defeat.
NDC Bitterness
They have been complaining that the election was ‘stolen’ from them but they are yet to provide single evidence that the results declared had been compromised.
The NDC has been holding a series of press conferences, making pronouncements that they won and that the Electoral Commission (EC) did not give them the win, and are threatening to go to court to overturn the results.
They even, at one of their press conferences, declared Mr. Mahama as President-elect, and even said they were also going to form a transition team.
However, the actions of the NDC moving to the constituencies to put pressure of election officials amid issuance of threats is appearing to suggest that they are now gathering the so-called evidence that the election was ‘stolen’ from them in spite of saying they ‘won’.
Techiman South
A bizarre incident occurred at Tehiman South in the Bono East Region on Friday, when the NDC officials led by their General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, went to the EC office there and wanted to force the EC official to release the Pink Sheet from the constituency to them when they knew that pink sheets are issued at the polling stations.
They then released a video of their ‘argument’ with the EC official who told them in plain language that all the documents had been sent to the regional office.
Those NDC gurus captured in the video included Victor Kojoga Adawudu, Collins Dauda, Asiedu Nketia, Baba Jamal and Larry Gbevlo Lartey among other NDC regional and constituency officers.
The EC official looked calm and spoke to them in a polite manner but the NDC leaders looked incensed and wanted to push their way through without any success.
Give & Take
EC Official: I have sent the documents to the regional office. I don’t have the copies with me here.
Adawudu: You were sworn in by a magistrate. It is an office work. We just want what you have declared. We don’t have a copy. Or we can sight it (sic), what you have.
EC Official: If you go to regional office you can get it.
Baba Jamal: Why should we go to regional office when you are the Returning Officer?
Collins Dauda: You see, even if the regional officer gives us the results, we cannot rely on that one. It is what you have given that we can use because the law says that you are the one to declare the results.
Gbevlo Lartey: My brother, there is one thing; as individual citizens of this country, we all have a responsibility to ensure that the country is peaceful. That is the primary responsibility that we have in anything that we do. And for that instance is why I am here. I would urge you to contribute to that peace. Because you see, if there is any indication that you have done something that helps the other party to steal the election, it raises tension and it gives a lot of us problems. So, whatever you will do to contribute to that, I would urge you to do it. So that if for instance they are asking for the summary sheet, you know, be frank and open and say this is the summary sheet that I prepared. Answer the things such that everybody will be convinced, then the tension can come down and then we will all have peace. Too much tension is not good for this country.
EC Officer: I don’t have anything like that. We completed everything; we input (sic) everything. You (NDC) were there.
Baba Jamal: You cannot tell me that you have submitted it and you don’t have copies here.
Adawudu: Mr. Returning Officer, by C.I. 127 Regulation 43, it says that it is only you, appointed as the Returning Officer for the Techiman South Constituency. From the facts, we have come to you, you have told us that you have declared the results on the base (sic) of the law; we are asking that what has been declared, if we can be given a copy of the statement known as the Pink Sheet, showing the results for Techiman South. That is our request from you.
EC Officer: I have said I have given it to the regional officer. If you go there they will give it to you.
Adawudu: Our copy is with the Regional Electoral Officer, so we should go to the Regional Director of the Electoral Commission for copy of the Techiman South, is that what you are saying?
Baba Jamal: Before we leave, you made a statement, let us confirm it on camera that he has all the Pink Sheets of the elections with him and it is based on that that he declared the elections. I want that to be captured on camera. (interestingly, there was nowhere on the NDC’s own recorded video that the EC official said he had all the Pink Sheets of the elections with him and it is based on that that he declared the elections).
Adawudu: Officer, since you are saying that we should go to the Regional Director of the Electoral Commission for a copy, I want you to be on notice that we have met with the Regional Director and he says that any Statement of Polls in Techiman South, because you are the Returning Officer, you are the rightful person to give it to us. And he does not have it. So, if you are saying that we should go to him, we will go but we are putting you on notice that we have been there already and if you are insisting that it is with the Regional Director, we are saying that is not what the law provides but if that is your interpretation and you think he is the rightful person to give it to us, we would take it like that.
After, Adawudu said “thank you” to the EC Official, a voice from among the irate NDC gurus remarked “You will pay for this!”
2012 Episode
In 2012, the current ruling NPP, then in opposition, faced a similar fate when they accused the EC led by Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan and the NDC, of colluding to steal the election for Mr. Mahama, who had just succeeded President John Evans Atta Mills after his sudden death and won a controversial election.
The NPP then filed a petition at the Supreme Court, which later became the landmark Presidential Election Petition of 2013 that travelled for eight months, before the court on August 29, 2013, in a five-to-four-majority, dismissed the petition despite the overwhelming evidence that the verdict had been stolen for the NDC.
Even before the NPP started preparing to go to court, this same NDC gurus with Gbevlo Lartey as the National Security Coordinator at the time, even attempted using the police to raid the NPP office at Asylum Down in Accra, to seize the pink sheets that would have incapacitated the NPP from mounting the legal challenge.
NDC ‘Lawyers’
Ahead of the 2020 election, the NDC had told the whole world that they had appointed lawyers in all the 275 constituencies to assist them to track the Pink Sheets and mount possible legal challenge should the need arise.
The NDC appears not to have learnt anything after their humiliating defeat in 2016 in which their own post-election report (Kwesi Botchwey report) said they could not even collate their results using the Pink Sheets issued to their agents.
The NPP on the other hand, after the 2012 episode where the Supreme Court made it clear that elections are won at the polling stations, learnt a useful lesson and had since been tracking all pink sheets immediately they are issued, using an advanced IT system.
By midnight after the election was held last Monday, over 80% of the pink sheets issued during the election to NPP agents in all the over 38,000 polling stations, had been sent to the party’s collation centre in Accra and they had an idea how the results were looking like.
By Ernest Kofi Adu