I Fear for Dr Afari Gyan

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

After adamantly refusing the New Patriotic Party's initial request, as far back as December, to review the figures of the results of the 2012 presidential election before officially certifying and announcing the same, on the last day of February 2012, the Afari-Gyan-chaired Electoral Commission (EC) launched what may be aptly termed as a blisteringly desperate defense of its allegedly fraudulent declaration of Election 2012 in favor of the incumbent, Mr. John Dramani Mahama (See "All Voters Used Biometric - EC Says in Response to Petition" Daily Graphic/Ghanaweb.com 3/1/13).

Dr. Afari-Gyan has one big problem, here, which simply refuses to go away: He has to explain to both the Ghanaian and global communities why President Mahama went on the air to bitterly decry the fact that some voters, resident all over the country, were reportedly not being allowed to vote at their local pollling stations because the biometric voting machines were not picking up their registration particulars and personal identification. And also, as to why Mr. Mahama categorically requested that voters who could not be biometrically identified should, nonetheless, be allowed to vote.

Needless to say, somebody, between the President of Ghana and the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, is not telling us the truth. And, if, indeed, Dr. Afari-Gyan sincerely wants the global community to believe that there were absolutely no glitches, or hitches, of the kind hinted above, then either President Mahama was clinically way out of his elements, as it were, when he publicly made the aforesaid claim, or Dr. Afari-Gyan was simply throwing dust into the eyes of the people.

The Electoral Commissioner also claims that polling agents had "the right to ask for a recount of the votes or to refuse to sign the Declaration Form and give their reasons for the refusal." The fact of the matter is that Dr. Afari-Gyan has yet to provide the public with full details of the number of instances in which polling agents for the respective parties asked for a voting recount and such requests were either complied with or summarily denied; and also under what circumstances did Ghana's 1992 Republican Constitution allow a duly certified polling agent representing any of the legitimately registered political parties to refuse to sign a polling declaration form.

Already, the credibility of the Electoral Commissioner is hanging in the balance over his mendacious declaration that some 241,000 Ghanaians resident abroad participated in Election 2012 outside the country. To-date, available evidence indicates that well under 800 Ghanaians, largely members of the diplomatic corps, voted in the diaspora. And so when he asserts that the EC made a "genuine error" in declaring that the total number of votes cast stood at 14,158,880 instead of 14,031,680, Dr. Afari-Gyan's excuse can at best only be taken with "a bag of salt."

The Electoral Commissioner also flagrantly contradicts himself when he claims in one paragraph of his petition rebuttal that 905 pink sheets, representing 3.5 percent of the total number of pink sheets used nationwide were, in fact, unsigned, only to re-claim in the very next paragraph of his counter-petition that, in fact, 99 percent of all pink slips used in Election 2012 "were signed by the polling or counting agents of candidates."

Dr. Afari-Gyan also has yet to explain the attempt by the "Savelugu Three" to fraudulently cause official signatures to be appended to some unsigned pink slips more than two months after the 2012 general election; likewise, the fairly widespread attempts by presumable hired hands of unknown patrons to deliberately damage biometric voting machines or cause the stealing and/or illegal removal of some of the same.

Truly speaking, I don't even think the Farlex Dictionary-quoting Dr. Afari-Gyan knows the meaning of "Merit," as classically defined by the globally ubiquitous Dictionary.com, to enable him to rather so abruptly call on our august Supreme Court to summarily dismiss the Akufo-Addo-led petition on the dubious grounds of the latter "lacking merit."

Uncle Kwadwo, I fear for you! __________________________________________________

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York March 1, 2013 ###