Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, on Monday confessed that the Statement of Poll and Declaration of Results Form (Pink Sheet) used for the December 2012 elections were printed in countries he has no idea of.
According to him, he did not think it was of importance to know where the printing was being done even though he is aware “no printing house in Ghana” had the capacity to print the pink sheets.
This revelation came to light when Lead Counsel for the petitioners, Lawyer Philip Addison sought to know from the EC Chairman if and why his outfit ordered pink sheets to be printed outside the country whilst ballot papers were printed in Ghana.
In response to the question, Dr. Afari-Gyan frankly answered that “I don’t know where they (pink sheets) were printed”. Lawyer Philip Addison pressed Dr. Afari-Gyan on for the second time, but the EC chair repeated the same answer.
Lawyer Addison: “Dr. Afari-Gyan, my question is simple; do you know where it was printed?
Afari-Gyan: “My Lords, I don’t know”, he snapped.
In an attempt to justify his ignorance, Dr. Afari-Gyan noted that before the pink sheets were printed, the EC contacted a Ghanaian company before the contract was awarded to a company abroad to do the printing.
“My Lords, we deal with Ghanaian companies and the Ghanaian companies then contact somebody abroad to do the printing. We contacted a Ghanaian company to do the printing”, he said.
Addison: Were the parties told that the pink sheets were going to be printed as the EC did with the ballot papers?
Afari-Gyan: No, because it is not everything we have to tell the parties.
Addison: Did you request for numbers to be printed on the pink sheets?
Afari-Gyan: Yes.
Addison: How many pink sheets did you order to be printed?
Afari-Gyan: 27,000 booklets of pink sheets with each containing 17 individual sheets were ordered.
