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| Afari Gyan admits to double registration, over-voting |
6/9/2013 |
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Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, yesterday admitted that there were several instances of double registration in the biometric voter register used for the conduct of the 2012 December Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
Also Dr Afari Gyan admitted that in every instance where the number of ballots issued to a polling station were less than the total votes cast as stated on the pink sheet, that phenomenon would be described as over-voting, a clear departure of the stance he held earlier.
Dr Afari Gyan’s admission follows a submission of a list of 51 names by Philip Addison, counsel for the petitioners, out of the list of 705 Ghanaians provided by the EC, who were, according to the EC registered abroad.
It is recalled that Dr. Afari-Gyan, the sole returning officer for the presidential poll, had previously told the court that the use of the biometric registration and verification system had helped to improve the conduct of elections, specifically in helping to prevent double registration and impersonation.
He had also said that the 2012 election was the most transparent of all six elections he had superintended in the country. However, this assertion by Dr Afari Gyan was proved to be highly flawed by Philip Addison.
Philip Addison, during the cross-examination of Dr Afari Gyan provided the latter with a document titled ‘list of duplicate registration’ of Ghanaians abroad.
Out of this list, Philip Addison stated that details of one person by name “Abdul Bassit Ibrahim” was duplicated to show that he was two different individuals. He was aged 25, registered as living in Dubai, with the same polling station registration centre. However, to disprove that this was a mere mistake, it was revealed that “Abdul Bassit Ibrahim” had two different voter ID numbers. The Voters'' ID numbers were 1843900778 and 1843 800770.
In another instance, two men having the same name Abdul Muro Bashiru were also identified. They were registered as living in Berlin, aged 48 years with the same polling station H2000203A but with voter ID numbers 1852801842 and 1852901840.
Similarly, two women with the same name Evelyn Esi, was entered entered in the register as numbers 87 and 310 with ages 42 years each and living in New York. Their polling station number is C131904 but their voter IDs are 1844900546 and 1844 800 548
Numbers 473 and 542 on the register also had two women both aged 30, living in Geneva with same name, with polling station code C070501A but different voters IDs 1852800752 and 1851852900750.
Dr. Afari-Gyan in these instances admitted to double registration but said their checks showed 15 names. However, after being confronted with the entire list of 51 during the lunch break, Dr Afari Gyan confirmed to the court that, indeed the phenomenon of double registration existed in the 2012 biometric register.
Paragraphs 17-19 of Dr Bawumia’s affidavit explained that in the list of 705 names from various diplomatic missions abroad furnished by the EC in response to interrogatories the Petitioners served on the 2nd Respondent, there were 51 instances of repeated names to a total of 102.
“In all these instances but one, the two "identities" had the same name, same age, same gender, same location, same assigned polling station but different voter ID numbers. In one instance the name Abudulai Enusah Jamila, a 22-year old, also with New York as location, and a male is found alongside the name Abudali Enusah Jamila, 22-year old, also with New York location but a female. The two were assigned the same polling station but with different voter ID numbers,” the affidavit noted.
According to Dr Bawumia, the scrutiny of some of the voter ID numbers supposedly belonging to some of these foreign registered voters could not be found on the general voters register, that is to say, they were/are fake identities.
“These fake ID numbers for the multiple names also had a unique pattern. For most of them, the pattern was to add "1" to, or subtract "1" from, the 5th digit of the ID number and subtract ‘2’ from the last digit. For example:
a) Abudul-Mumin Bashiru (No. 159 on the list) with voter ID number – 1852801842; and
b) Abdul-Mumin Bashiru (No. 572 on the list), with voter ID number – 1852901840,” the affidavit stated.
The EC, according to Dr Bawumia’s affidavit also placed the duplicate names far apart from each other, suggesting that the EC sought to hide these duplicates and make their detection difficult. For instance, one Abdul Bassit Ibrahim was placed 11th on the list, while the second Abdul Bassit Ibrahim was placed 465th on the list. Similarly, while a Paul Yaw Essel was placed at No. 338 another Paul Yaw Essel was at No. 603.
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