Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman Eric Asare, has debunked as falsehood being bandied about in sections of the media that he is scheming for Aerovote, the company that has supposedly been selected to print pink sheets, to sub-contract part of the contract to another company without the requisite printing machines to print the pink sheets.
The former Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana told this paper when we reached out to him to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the story that “There’s no truth in the story”.
Sources at the Electoral Commission with knowledge of the contract assured this paper that “The man is very mindful of his role as a Commissioner and therefore would not do anything that bring his office into disrepute. Let those who are making the allegation prove with evidence their allegation or shut up.”
Read below excerpts of the story the alleged that Dr. Bossman Asare was allegedly scheming for Aerovote, to sub-contract part of the contract to another company without the requisite printing machines to print the pink sheets:
About Pink Sheets In Ghana’s Election
The form on which the Statement of Poll and Declaration of Result for the office of President and Parliament is recorded is known as the pink sheet.
It is called pink because it is coloured pink.
For the purpose of this article, the focus will be on the Statement of Poll and Declaration for the office of President.
Article 49 (2) of the 1992 Constitution states: “Immediately after the close of poll, the presiding officer shall, in the presence of such candidate or their representatives and their polling agents as are present, proceed to count, at the polling station, the ballot papers of that station and record the votes cast in favour of each candidate or question.”
‘Question’ here refers to the event a referendum is being organised and polls have closed for counting to proceed.
Article 49 (3) states: “The presiding officer, the candidate or their representative and, in the case of a referendum, the parties contesting or their agents and the polling agents if any, shall then sign a declaration stating – (a) the polling station; and (b) the number of votes cast in favour of each candidate or question: and the presiding officer shall, there and then, announce the results of the voting at the polling station before communicating them to the returning officer.”
Thus, the declaration as spelt out by the Constitution is recorded on the pink sheet, a copy of which is then handed over to representatives of the political parties.
It became famous in the Election Petition after the 2012 elections.
In Ghana, however, pink means serious business. Pink in Ghana’s politics since December 9, 2012 has not meant the same for the two main political parties in the country.
Per what the argument put before the Supreme by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), President John Dramani Mahama, benefited from the colour pink on December 9, 2012, the same cannot be said of the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Results collated on pink sheets and subsequently declared by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, inured to the benefit of President Mahama, but Nana Akufo-Addo and two others, per their arguments, saw the pink sheets from 11,138 polling stations as “tainted” with gross and widespread irregularities and not fit to be added to the tally of polls declared.
Nana Akufo-Addo, his running mate, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, and the Chairman of the NPP, Mr. Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, challenged the declaration of President Mahama as winner of the 2012 presidential election based on the pink sheets in their possession.
And aside from the general reference to rules of court, statutes, reported legal cases and the1992 Constitution, lawyers on all the sides relied heavily on the pink sheets to make their case.
Sittings at the Supreme Court were heavily characterized by objections and counter-objections relating to both filed and unfiled pink sheets.
The expression “pink sheet” has become so popular that it can hardly “pass by” without it being caught up in all manner of conversations in Ghana.
Stay tuned for more
