Lead counsel for the first respondent in the election petition, Tony Lithur has vehemently rejected calls by second petitioner that, 2.6 million votes should be cancelled because of duplication of serial numbers, accusing the latter of conjuring evidence.
Continuing his cross-examination on day six of the landmark election petition hearing at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Mr Lithur posited that the petitioners did not train their polling agents to check serial numbers on pink sheets because “it was not an issue” and also “unimportant”.
But his assertion was countered by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the second petitioner, who indicated to the court that the party did not avert their mind to the serial numbers before the election because they expected the second respondent, the Electoral Commission, to protect the “integrity of the elections”.
Not convinced by the answer provided by the witness, Mr Lithur made a strong case against the petition, arguing that a polling station is primarily identified by the code and not the serial number.
He maintained that this accounted for the reason why no formal complaint was made by party agents at the various polling stations, but they went ahead to endorse the results by appending their signatures on the pink sheets.
Mr Lithur was emphatic when he asked the witness whether he would want “2.6 million votes wiped off” so that he Dr Bawumia would be made the Vice-President of Ghana.
When the petitioner insisted that the votes should be cancelled because the “integrity of those polling stations have been compromised,” Mr Lithur hit back accusing Dr Bawumia of “conjuring” the idea of serial number duplication to “beef up non existing case”.
But Dr Bawumia rejected that argument and reminded the counsel that the “issue is a serious one”.
He stressed that the petitioners in no way challenged the details of the pink sheets from those polling stations, but because they cannot vouch for the integrity of the pink sheets, “the account [on them] is questionable”.
Dr Bawumia insisted that serial number is important that is why it is embossed on the pink sheet unlike the code which is handwritten.
“The security of the form is highly compromised if the serial number is hand written,” he pointed out.
