Election Petition: Asiedu Nketia cross examined on NDC's declaration of Mahama as 2020 polls winner

peter mcmahon is representing a second respondent he pleases your lawsuits at hakutan pal for the second respondent my lords with me are my colleagues frank davis quakers and the album my my lords i believe the last thing uh your lordship which you just said um just before you rose was that there was going to be a consideration of the admissibility and my lord's will respect i had understood that this is not a video that is being tempted in evidence so as to have admissibility in question but it is something that they are seeking to use to address some credibility this year so i believe that uh at this stage we're not talking i i just wanted to clarify my own understanding we're not talking about admissibility of the contents of that video we're talking about their indication that they are seeking to use the video in cross-examination for the purposes of credibility of the witness so hello i i wondered whether there can be confirmation yeah that council if uh it is not introduced in inevitance yeah they can't close on me on that so if they ask for leave to have it in evidence then maybe we'll follow you need some objection reason i think section five sorry hope the objective the evidence act okay before we begin we want to make some a few observations mr uh from davis mr from davis uh please say we respectfully want to draw your attention to the legal profession professional conduct and ethical truth or 2020 please if you look at section 38 38 sorry the court is not comfortable with the post trial interview that you grant outside please say if i'm married to you look at it a lawyer who is practicing or has participated in the investigation or litigation of a matter that is still pending before a court shall not make an out of court statement or grant an interview to the media on the matter so please say we are just drawing your attention to the ethical infractions and you have to advise yourself accordingly somebody other than you may do it that is not a concern but you are precluded by law because you have been announced in the case on regular disease i lost and grateful even please if you are even a lawyer and you are not actively participating please we we make it passionately to you to put down your rules and learn the interview you don't think that you should be in groups with awake on and under maybe yes addressing the media announce the advices faithfully take my lord may we ask the witness and that's in respect of the issue of admissibility of the evidence in the video recording our view is that at this stage we will only play the video recording for purposes of identification if you want the court to have it in evidence you can do the right thing yes i then wish to apply [Music] you haven't shown it so very well [Music] the as i said the object of the video evidence is to demonstrate letting them play it then he can see it and then you can start from there in the witness box you are being reminded of the previous rules that you took at uh last again date we sought to refer to our exhibit a this is a video recording and you did not seem to have exhibit six which is our video recording of certain press conferences and you did not seem to have looked at them and also my i believe this is really where i started off from could he finish so i can record what he's actually saying it doesn't seem to me that he finished and also there was not the necessary preparation technically to show what is the recording and the case was again to today so that that could be done now i believe you have seen the recording since then yes my lord i have watched a video of the copy of the video that was attached to the statement and the recordings do relate to press conferences yes where i spoke yes and why you didn't speak still related to press conferences on the 2020 presidential elections yes my lord now my lords we may wish to have the recording played in open court because it is our view that the recordings as your nurses will see go to the credibility of the witness and the practitioner as we have indicated from the beginning as we have indicated from the beginning if they are being shown in order to deal with issues of credibility we don't have any issue with that our concern is that it's not an issue of admissibility and my lord this was why i needed to clarify your last order because [Music] the admissibility comes first it must be admitted before we see the the relevance of uh in that event we are objecting to that in that event if the issue of the admissibility i thought the witness council was crazy some few moments ago and he said he had seen it and he had worked it maybe you have other legal objections you can be recorded as such no the legal objection is that it cannot be admitted through this witness it is not admissible through this week no the witness said he did speak he says he has seen it but it can't be admitted in evidence in this walkthrough it is not it is not something from his custody he says he has watched it it is not from his custody it is not a recording made by him there is no he cannot authenticate he cannot authenticate that video the witness has not slept well they would never have no session oh my lord my lord he says he has seen it but but seen it but on the basis of that we cannot on the basis of that we are objecting to that document being produced in evidence through the witness the proper thing is for them to produce it in evidence if that is what they are seeking to do that's why it's an exhibit attached to their witness statement as a as an attachment to their replacement it is entirely open for them to put it in evidence it is in fact the process that they have initiated but they cannot tender that video through our witness they cannot do that without they cannot do that and we we respectfully object to that evidence by virtue of section 6 of the evidence act the exhibit in question okay the exhibit in question is not coming from the custody of this witness it is it is according to council it is an exhibit attached to the witness statement that they are seeking to introduce before this court and they are entitled to introduce it into evidence through their witness when he is called into court it is a different matter if you try to ask the opposite the witness on the opposite side to be the one to tender it's my lord we cannot have intended through that witness and my lord i would respectfully also refer to section 136 one which indicates which provides us for of the evidence 1361 of the evidence act i'm sorry where the relevancy of evidence depends upon its authenticity or identity so that authentication authentication or identification is required as a conditioned precedent to admission that requirement is satisfied by evidence or other showing sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims the proponent of that document is the second respondent and your lordships clearly saw what happened in cross-examination the other time the witness literally opened the envelope in which that exhibit had been attached to a witness statement at the request of second at the request of second council for the second respondent that cannot amount to authentication and and my laws i i cannot see what the problem is in my indicating if your lawsuits wish the witness to step out was we discussed the legal admissibility of course that can be done but once there is an issue about admissibility authentication is also an issue and therefore my lords i cannot see how i'm not allowed to talk about authentication if that's what your leadership is suggesting because you prepared it whatever i said well you suggested that i authentication the witness has said he has mr sugata you're making arguments how do you make your argument yes i'm making my arguments your response to what your leadership indicated because what your leadership indicated was addressed to me i believe and addressed the whole court and respectfully my point is that the issue of authentication is a precondition to the admissibility of the evidence and we object the lawships with all due respect the objection being raised by council for the petitioner is misconceived and it is misconceived for the simple reason that the witness has identified the evidence that we seek to tender through him it is evidence about what he said in the press conference and he's admitted before this court early this morning we're not talking about friday we're talking about early this morning he admitted that he had looked at the videos and he admits that the cover statement that he had made at press conferences so that is an identification and authentication of the evidence secondly is also admitted before this court that the video also covers statements made by the petition now and other leading members of his party so my my lord it seems to me that in terms of the conditioned precedent that ought to be satisfied by section 136 1 it is more than met and we therefore pray that the objection be dismissed are you objecting because the document is attached to their witness statement is that the ground upon which you are raising your objection no because i'm objecting on the grounds that if it if that document which is there evidence if that document is to be admitted in evidence it ought to be admitted in evidence through their witness and secondly my laws secondly as i indicated that document's authenticity has to be established what my leonard friend just said with the greatest respect about the witnessing that he has seen the thing that he was shown on friday and so on how is that evidence of authentication my lord i believe i mean the word authentication assuming this evidence is not a video and there's a paper a paper like this and he's on the cross ammunition can they show him the document my lord likes me if i may land can they show him the document and then ask him to identify the document and if he so identifies can't the document be turned through him no matter what across the mission no it can't be turned through it can be identified yes and he can be asked questions relating to it it cannot be tended through him i will turn it through him cannot be tender he can they come and come to my dream with the greatest respect this is an important issue which we really cannot just gloss over my lord and and the reason why it's important is that if the witness is not the maker of that video he cannot authenticate it i mean the videos the the videos authenticity is is important as a precondition for its ideas i have stated clearly that if it's credibility and i've said that a couple of times this morning i said that if it's being shown to him for the purposes of questions related to credibility we don't have an issue about that so my lord in that situation it is not about admissibility with the greatest respect in that situation the issue is authenticity we haven't even seen it yeah how can we judge anybody or whether that is authentic or not yeah you can't do that by admitting it into evidence through him and then seeing it well that's the problem you cannot have to see this thing first yeah but i don't know i don't know current um difficulty is we have to say it first the gentleman the witness is the only person who said he had seen it over the weekend and he's the one in the box so that blind has been that threshold has been crossed the threshold has not been crossed because the threshold has not been crossed simply because he is not just being asked to identify the document and that's why in in in it has to do anything yet it hasn't even been shown to him so so you're anticipating a question that hasn't been asked i'm not my lord i'm stating as a ground of objection that this is a document which the witness is not responsible for it cannot be admitted through him and its authenticity has not yet been established it is a different matter if it is just being shown to him for the purposes of questions that will test its credibility but if it is about admissibility we object so so may just finally indicate that if it's identified it is still open to them when their witness comes for them now to tender it that's happened that can be yeah my lord what i was saying respectfully is that if the witness identifies it as something that he has been shown and is marked id one at the point in time where their witness comes in that id1 can become evidence that is my understanding of the of the that id1 then becomes admitted as evidence from their side another another possibility that is possible respectfully that's the only person no that is not the first principle that i was saying that they could tender through him i think we can debate on it but not here we don't want to we don't want to engage in academic exercise it could be a debate because i think that once he identifies the document and he finds that he has seen it he's is he's seen his picture in it he has seen himself in it they can identify they can turn it through him respectfully the reason why that would not work is because respectfully documents are in their total context the fact that he can identify himself in a part of the document cannot account for the context of the documents because my lord i mean especially in these days of technology your lordships are very well aware of the ways in which you know fake news for instance gets created and which things get pieced together which may not necessarily have been happening at the same time i need not go into all those pieces but the reality is that he is not the maker of that video and the fact that he hears his voice he identifies his face in it does not make it admissible to him it does not make it authenticated by him and it's a different matter where he is just identifying it it's month as such he is cross-examined to the extent that is required as to credibility and then when their witness comes in he is able to transform it from being something identified into something that he puts in evidence that's my understanding of the law video to be played for him to identify it um so so hello can can we request that you play the whole video the whole video so that no allegation of lifting anything you you you want a prospective has been as evident to be tended yes how can he truncate it at a point in time i'm just you know my lord i was just directing him that was all a gentleman we need to just just oppose a manual with an electronic this is just like in the manual world very well yes what we do in the manual world is what we are doing in this electronic i understand that so so okay which is a majority and no attention we need to subvert that i've looked at the results we've created so far and i'm excited i'm happy with the results and we won in 10 regions out of 16 and then the kenyan people have expressed confidence in us we will resist any attempts to separate the will of the people i won this election prize of 6 million 166 385 and that constitutes 50.15 expressing my deepest gratitude to you from your tremendous support which you express overwhelmingly and convincingly at the post there's no doubt that ghanaians from every region of this great nation of ours voted for change and we did so in both the presidential and parliamentary elections he has 141 that we said in a clear majority and will be given president muhammad the needed majority empowerment to be able to conduct his business as president one declared majority presidential candidate of the national democratic congress with the president's elect his excellency john grammar will address the nation and speak to issues pertaining to the presidential resource declared by the gms supposedly majority as our general faculty speaking as we think we know that we are more recognized ladies and gentlemen [Music] our policing so far indicate that our presidential candidate president john graham is ahead and we are expected that electoral commission will very soon come out to declare the next precedent let me use this opportunity to ask a matter of agency and importers call their voice president president william to concede him in the interest of our sovereignty in the interest of the sanctity of our democracy in the interest of the very people that begin he wants to fight for he must want [Music] uh [Music] will be as we declared is [Music] foreign here [Music] [Music] that you are free [Applause] to express your excitement of the republic of ghana [Music] majority deepest gratitude to you from your tremendous support which you express with a friendly and convincing young lady at the post there is no doubt that aliens from every [Music] believer [Music] a system of governance that allows the ultimate decision-making power to rest in the hands of you the good people of canada we the people who will hide towards the future we would like for our dear country representatives to go for it and realize their mission government says the choice direction and pleasure of the people of this great nation and privilege to set my country in all levels of government when in 2016 at the end of my first protest as president i run for green election as an incumbent candidate i respected the will of the people i conceived i stepped aside and i set emotion a peaceful trust of heart because i understood that it was the way one for which people paid the ultimate price the sacred berries of the people must be respected it must be protected my place throughout my time of service as a representative the good people of ghana to know exactly that and that is why i stand before you tonight i'm willing to accept the fictionalized results [Applause] my brothers and sisters it is important to remember that a government that is in power controls all of the speech resources and oversees all of the state's institutions the line he threats between his loyalty to the power that is held by the people and by his own indeed we went into the tributary presidential and parliamentary elections with assurances from the electoral commission and the relevant state actors that will be conducted in an atmosphere free from here and that will be fair transparently credible unfortunately that has not been the case what we witness across the country from monday 7th december 2020 expose the deliberate plan to manipulate and predetermine the results of the election in favor of the incumbent candidates and the state institutions despite all of the ruling parties inducements use of monetary enticements and other such schemes on a skill never before seen in the history of this country the good people of this country there's two borders at stake and it was clear as the results of the votes that were illegally has [Applause] position [Applause] [Music] themselves the title of giant electron cares we went into the parliamentary elections with a deficit of 63 seats for our 2016 losses and we're now set to become the majority in parliament [Applause] this historic feat after only 110 demonstrates the strength of our great party and the strength of the monday given to us by the good people of ghana to lead the respect of the presidential elections the facts and figures available to us from patients and other evidence that has unfolded across the country indicate that numerous steps have been taken to manipulate the results of the election in favor of the incumbent this course is requesting the credibility of one of our most important institutional pillars of democracy the electoral commission it is now obvious to meeting objective minds that the commission that is have been used to manipulate results from the various consequences and in that process seek to suspend the sovereign will of the alien people brothers and sisters one matter requires special mention the use of the military in this election is unprecedented in our district our force is featured heavily election results and they continue to be used in the same intimidating role to insist on recounts in areas in which the incumbent has lost while untrusting election officers we will not accept anything short of a declaration of [Applause] [Applause] which points to an nbc monumental majority regardless of success recently since the exception of the fourth republic final election results have always been declared within a 72-hour period to allow for federal and digital coalition collection surprisingly this electoral commission check has been announced quite suspiciously and for reasons known to read a hurricane for our deadline as we all know could not and would not be met the chairperson of the dc in less than 24 hours after declaration has admitted that she made unacceptable errors of the entire electoral process and cast deep doubts on the credibility of the announced outcome the electoral commission of ghana has never brought its credibility to this historic law at such a crucial moment [Music] um because they know that anything about 25 percent is so we are surprised thank you very from tampa yes my lord i believe you admit that the video recording that we've watched show you saying that the petitioner had won the elections i have watched the video now watch it here i stand by every word every punctuation every sentence that and there is nowhere unless we are watching different clips there's nowhere where i indicated definitively that the first respondent has won the relationship what i said was what i i put in my answer last friday that we have one majority of seats in parliament which is about which figure i put at 140 one seat and that we are proving that the first respondent is pushing for victory and that is precisely what has shown up in all the various speeches i have made which have been clipped together so let's understand you admit everything on the video coming from your image on the video from my mouth those are my pictures very well and those are the words that need from my mouth i'm putting it to you that in the video you said and i quote the ndc has won 141 seats and that puts us in a clear majority and will be given president muhammad the needed majority in parliament to be able to conduct his business as president yes did you say that those are my voice i'm putting it to you that you thereby imply that president mohamed had won the elections i implied that i expected president muhammad to win the elections because every evidence was was pointing at president muhammad victory and in fact my loss if you permit me in all the seven parliamentary and presidential elections that have been held in this country before this one the presidential candidate and the political party which wins and controls parliament ends up winning the president the presidency please so i have mr i said i don't lecture as you answer the questions i put to you you can lecture us we've answered the question don't give us a lecture of what happens in politics in ghana please now yes please by way of grace management we want to give you one day to cross i mean the witness yes you have to manage because not more than one that is the maximum we can give you well now we shall say you will see in the video various clips of your deputy juan otakono is that correct yes my lord in that in the video otokuno says mama has won this election by some 6 million 166 385 and that constitutes 50.15 percent is that also i had him say so in the video but my lord i indicated last friday that i was present at the press conferences addressed by my good self and the petitioner and i did indicate clearly that i would not be in the position to testify about whatever any other official of the nbc has said at their various press conferences that was what i said hello i'm putting it to you that the press conferences that have been shown at press conferences organized by the ndc as a party yes my lord the ndc has 38 000 branches each branch can organize a press conference in their own right and we have regions each region can organize press conferences in their own right and there are national at national level we have visual department they can all organize press conferences and their own right and the general secretary does not have to be present at all such press conferences now as a general secretary these press conferences were organized with your consent and knowledge my lord i am the chief executive of the party so in that sense i take some responsibility about whatever happens in the party but where a statement is made by a junior officer that contradicts what the chief executive has said it is the chief of narrative's word that prevails now again you saw mr sami jamfi stating that introducing the practitioner as president-elect in the video yes my lord i saw it in the video then again your deputy who works under you said let me announce to all our supporters that you are free to jubilate you are free to express your excitement because the ndc is forming the next government of the republic of ghana is that correct that's correct my lord my lord i'm not aware of any restrictions on jubilations of the right of patent university or violation results in the world i'm sure and then your representative from ashanti region your regional secretary said that president mahmoud will be declared as president-elect of ghana in the ndc historically whenever ndc gets more than 25 in ashanti they go to the flagstar house yes my lord i heard it so i'm putting it to you mr ashirin that the thrust of all these statements in the various clips is that president muhammad had won the 2020 presidential election yes my lord these statements according to the videos were made at different times when they were made some of them were made after declaration some before declaration and so on so it is difficult to put all sides together and say that at this point this was what was said no i'm putting it to you that these statements were made before declaration my lord my viewing of the video indicates that some of the statements were made after declaration even better and um so you admit that some of the statements saying that the traditional had won the elections were made after the declaration also from what not so from what i have watched here with everybody here i can see that this is not a video of one event these are videos picked and pieced together and some of them relate to a time period before declaration and others relate to a time period after declaration now it is no secret that intersperse between these press conferences the ndc under your direction had organized several demonstrations in accra stating that the petitioner had won the election and warning the first respondent not to subvert the will of the people my lord the ndc had organized several demonstrations with three main objectives one please have not asked you the killing of innocent place voters at polling stations by security officers and nothing seemed to be happening on some ndc made that was one of the purposes of the of the press conference the other purpose of the press conference please i have not asked you the purpose so answer my question please and don't be taking this they don't be taking instructions from you know lawyers on this side please please let's observe the please please my lord i know what i am closer to them than you we've not witnessed anything please please please [Music] yes please answer my question and don't you had your opportunity to write your witness statement so now you answer the questions you understand grace i'm asking the question again and i answer according to my ability and what i consider to be the answer to the question i'm saying that interspersed between these press conferences yes the ndc organized a series of demonstrations the object of which was true thing is loaded you see it is double barrage organize and download demonstrations is that so yes we did and one of the clear objectives of these demonstrations was that the petitioner had won the elections and the issue should not subvert the will of the people the objective that relates to the presidential elections was that the results has declared were flawed and the commission itself had accepted that there is also a fraud and that's why they kept changing the figures so you admit that you said that the results were flawed yes who in your view won the results the elections my lord who we are not interested in winning or losing a fraud election very well we want the election we want to be witness of an election that is credible now it is also true that notwithstanding all these statements that your party yourself and the petitioner had made that the petitioner had won the election when you eventually filed your petition there was nothing in the petition about the petition having won the elections my lord i have educated earlier now please answer my question please i'm about to answer the question unless you are not ready to listen to the answer i've asked you that before you filed the petition yes yes there was nothing in it to the effect that the petitioner had won the elections in the petition yes now again you claim in one of your statements that elections were won in the polling stations all over the country so i'm putting it to you that when you made the statement that the prisoner had won the election it presupposed that you had the the full tree station pink sheets my lord i indicated that i never if i never said that the petitioner had won relations now when the petitioner was telling the whole nation that the ndc had won both the parliamentary and presidential elections on what basis was he making that statement you can address on it yes you can address on it now now i believe that as you had admitted during course examination on friday that you had trained agents at all the various polling stations and constituency correlation stations and the regional centers is that correct that's correct now they are all entitled to carbon copies of all the different official election documents of the results yes my lord they are entitled to and i presume that in some cases they were denied you know that you have not stated this important factor in your witness statement you know that as a fact and what i'm answering to you a question that has been asked yes i'm saying that in our following up that you know that this important allegation you have not mentioned it in your weakness statement yes i have not mentioned it in mind and the petitioner also has not mentioned it in this petition my lord we indicated that that is what ought to be but as to whether what ought to be was what happened was another matter i indicated it clearly i'm saying no you are answering a different question i'm saying that if you look into the petition or you look at the petition nowhere does the petitioner say what you are allergic yes but i said it in response to an answer last friday now i'm putting it to you that the only evidence of election results that you you you have attached is your exhibit b exhibit a is that declaration as it would be the press release exhibit c the 11 constituency sum ratios exhibit d the summary sheet of eastern region exhibit e the 275 consensus summary sheets which you described as a spreadsheet of the constructed summary sheets released by first respondent on this website last landlord i indicated that we chose to rely on electra the first respondent's own figures never engaging them by their own bible so it means that you accept the information on those documents of the first respondent the information suggests no no no i've asked you a simple question you are saying that you are accept the information in those documents as the documents of the election ask for electoral first respondents account that's what that you accept the information in the documents that you have attached my lord i've been advised mine by my lawyers that that is the information however it is you're not talking about what don't look there please we are not talking we are not talking about what your lawyers advise you on we are talking about you yes so what do you have to say man because we disagree with the data that's why we are here but you are using the same data in support of your claim my lord the data must be internally consistent such that the declaration must be seen to be the product of aggregation of medita and we are entitled as a participating party to look at the data available to us from which the first respondent drew her conclusion and we are saying that the data [Music] they have submitted does not support the conclusions that have been drawn and that is why we are here now you see you have not please look at me please so that you don't ask me as actually repeat the question again look at me now you have not provided any document of your own showing that neither party won the elections my lord please it says documents we are working with the information we are working with is the result that has been declared by the that is okay i'm saying as a matter of fact that you the general secretary who was directing and coordinating the presidential elections you have not produced a single piece of independent evidence supporting your claim that neither party won the elections simple question my lord i need to understand what independent means so that i can proceed to to answer the question independent by way of ndc's own collated figures or what type of individual you see as you know all the documents that the ec was using to magically collate the results from the polling station right up to the regional center you had carbon copies of them don't you yes we do and i'm saying that you have not put together your carbon copies to show that indeed nobody won the elections yes my lord because that is not the purpose of our uh of our situation so you say what is not the purpose and then that we did not come to court to come and take over the work of electoral commission but we are entitled if we see the results are flawed they are not born out of the data we're entitled to challenge and to insist that we must have a credible resource that and a declaration that is based on the votes that were passed at the polling stations that's okay i'm saying that you have not provided any basis of your own for your call for a run-off but no my lord we haven't brought that data here we didn't consider it necessary to our case to bring any such data you see do you know why you haven't brought any sad document it is because all the documents you have all the authentic documents on the election that you have show that the second respondent had won the election so you can't bring it out that is not so my lord because we produce documents that will support the case we bring to this court and if the case we are brought to this court it's not about coming to retaliate figures the way mpp chose to do in 2013 and we do not need to bring those figures here we are judging the first respondent by her own bible so the figures that she claimed were the figures that were generated and the conclusions that were drawn we are saying that the conclusions are not born out of the figure she herself asked me so mr senior i'm saying that indeed your claim for a re-run between the second respondent and the practitioner is based on the verbal slip made by the chairperson of the first respondent in mentioning the total votes cost rather than the total valid votes class as the basis of determining the percentages my lord do you understand the question please ask if you think i don't understand it can you repeat it yes i'm saying that your claim for the re-run is based from is based on the simple slip verbal slip that the chairperson of the first respondent did when he was announcing declaring the results in using the total votes cost rather than the total value input to determine the percentages is that not correct my lord we disagree that it's a verbal sleep now because a very bad sleep in and reading out figures would have meant that you read one figure instead of the other but the the from subsequent corrections that the first responders sought to bring up the figure she mentioned and the correction that was made was not related to the uh feelings of the day at all because it will have maybe total good cast in one column and then total valid votes in another column it is possible that you read total valid votes for two thousands pass but there will be the same thing so when you come back to alert that it was a vapor slip we expect that the correction that you will meet will relate to the figure which you thought you should you were reading but the corrections that they claimed were made did not relate the so-called corrected figures did not relate to any figure that was on the face of the declaration in the first place so it was a new figure also introduced so it can it couldn't have been any perversely you see mr you know as an experienced player in elections in the fourth republic that you determine who wins the presidential elections based on the total number of valid votes past do you know that yes i do and you know also that it is completely impermissible for anyone to use the total number of vote costs as a basis of determining the percentages you also know that yes i do now you also know that if you look at if you listen to the the your exhibit hey that is that the the press conference declaring who won the elections tabulate the total of all the votes obtained by the 12 candidates you will get 13 million one two one one one one votes done correct no i'm correct that finger was nowhere in any declaration no no no i'm listening to the questions i say if you tabulate the results obtained by each of the 12 candidates and sum them up you get a total of 30 million 121 000. is that not correct aspect if he gets released by the electoral commission that is correct okay now you see therefore that being the case you are not permitted to use any other number to calculate the percentages my lord the no no i was not involved in the calculation leading to the declaration look at your policies you don't trade questions with with the lawyer who is queer examining you he prefers that i remember when he was coming to this he said you are a veteran in in relations and you admitted this yes who in ghana doesn't know the role you have played yes yes that was why he is trying to cross you don't try to i mean go away what as if you are engaging that's my lord we are learning so [Music] enjoy my friend met me in parliament to be a different story so mr katia you admit that it is completely wrong for anybody to use the total votes cast as a basis for determining the percentages of the votes obtained by the different candidate yes yes and anybody who does that his position is cannot be accepted anywhere in ghana yes my lord you see but that is pretty what the petitioner does in paragraph 16 of his petition if i check it and read it after the cut and then get there yeah paragraph system read it out consequently if all votes of touching myself constituency were added to the petitioner's case were added to the petitioners votes second respondents votes will remain the same at six million seven hundred and thirty thousand four hundred and thirty now yielding 49.625 percent while the votes of petitioner would increase six million three hundred and forty two thousand nine oh seven now yielding 46.7 68 and you had seen that in paragraph 15 vargas 15 i read paragraph 15. yes the attachments have constituency has a total registered voter population of 188 000 and 18 and if added to the total valid votes announced by mrs jin adequately as cast i 13 million 434 574 the resultant figure would now be 30 million 562 592. you see i'm putting it to you that the figure 13 million four three four seven four does not represent the total valid votes obtained by the twelve candidates if you do the audition from the announcement the declaration in your in your exhibit a it doesn't can you come again please say i want to hear the question saying that if you do your addition of the votes obtained by each of the candidates as declared by the chairperson of the first respondent what the sum you get is not 13 434 574 it is not yes if you like we give you a calculator i'm saying that it is not the total valid vote my lord yes it's not the total valid votes but we are not claiming that that was a total valid vote this is a response to the statement made by the [Music] first respondent herself as the basis for the declaration of the of the results before taking into account that mines are put so we are again judging her by her own bible i don't have a problem with that but therefore you cannot use what you know is factually incorrect and not permitted by the rules governing our election as the valid total values cast you can't use that even if the ece made that mistake you can't use that as a basis for your claim my lord as i sit here i don't know the total valid votes really fast all the figures are coming from the first respondent and that first responder keep changing those figures saying my question is please answer my question your answer being the case that the 30 million 34 five 434 four it's not the total valid force that you've admitted that you can't i'm putting it through that you can't use that as a basis as a denominator for determining the percentages come again my lord i'm saying that we have admitted that the thirteen thousand four three four thirty million four hundred and thirty four thousand five hundred and seventy four that the chairperson of the ec announced is in fact the total valid vote and that if you do the tabulation of the actual numbers votes obtained by each candidate as declared on 9th december you find out that 30 million 121 111. yes i'm just trying to help you understand okay and therefore and therefore it is impermissible for you to use this 30 million three four three four three five seven four even if it was used by the ec check to determine the percentages my lord both figures are coming from the same source i didn't have the results i'm saying it is impermissible for you to use it as the total valid if the first respondent declares its soul it might be so so you see then if the first respondent declares that the second responder is that it also must be so no my lord because that is why we are here my lord if the first respondent declared that these are the figures we are entitled to rely on those figures and when we find out that the figures are internally inconsistent we challenge her conclusions and then we come to a forum like this you see um otherwise i have been a banker when i check it's written please please please and there are probably they check please not one signatory can cancel you bring it back to the where the check was written and all the signatories will please we will cancel and make the operations we have stated that we were not part of any attempt [Music] now you see i'm putting it to you that you use this iranian figure as a basis for calling for your rerun that's what i'm putting to you i'm saying that you use the uranus figure of 30 million four three four seven five four five seven four as the basis for calling for rerun that's what you use for tonight was used by the econo that's what you use [Music] you said what was your answer what the questions are so i'm saying that you cannot use the manifestly erroneous figure or wrong figure of thirteen million four hundred and thirty four thousand five hundred and seventy four as the total valid votes cost to determine the percentages of all the 12 candidates and in particular the second respondent and the petitioner as obvious that we cannot use an ironworks figure i want to get the question well before i can give you an answer this is the third time i'm asking you yes let's do you cannot use that wrong trigger as the total valid votes first as a basis for your claim that there should be a rerun between the second respondent and the petitioner i know that is not the only basis for them no no no please answer my question are they asking what other bases we'll go step by step yes my lord now now you admit that in paragraph two of your no no sorry you admit that the practitioner has been a member of the ndc since its formation in 1992 since this formation the end this is formation in 1992. we are referring to are referring to the petitioner you don't know when i want to with the permission of my lord refer to the paragraph we are quoting no no quoting i'm asking you and naturally he was the ndc's presidential candidate yes my lawyers now indeed in your paragraph two of your witness statement can you read yes your paragraph too yes to the whole world i'm the general secretary of the national democratic congress the political party on whose ticket petitioner contested as candidate for the office of president in the presidential elections held on 7th december 2020. i testify in support of the petitioner's case as contained in this petition here one [Music] no i'm putting it to you that as general secretary of the ndc you are the coordinator of the general elections particularly the presidential elections for the ndc i'm the coordinator of campaigns for the party generally and as coordinator you coordinate the work of your agents the agents or the presidential candidates throughout the country and they report to you in that capacity yes my lord so it is correct to say that you had full information on what was going on all over the country during the 2020 presidential elections my lord at if i may find out which information we are relating to i say inform relevant information as to how the election was run yes by and large i have information and i i believe that on that basis you provided petitioners with all relevant information on developments you consider significant particularly the presidential results yes as you receive them then also yes my lord so i believe the personnel has trust in you and that together with a strategic role you play in coordinating the activities of agents of the petitioner during the elections he selected you to give evidence in support of his case yes my lord now you remember that when the president of the republic in july 2018 appointed the current chairperson our first respondent your reaction as general secretary to the appointment was that you were shocked and disappointed because second respondent was a known pro mpp person to a first respondent was a known pro npp person ndc person that was your reaction yes my lord those were my words indeed point the first when the first respondent announced that they were going to compile a new voters register your party the practitioner and you in particular you strongly registered saying a legend among other grants that trans-respondent and the president were colluding to compile a new register to wreak the elections that's what he said yes my lord and we are grounds to say so and and indeed the ndc of which your general secretary going to cut to stop the compilation of a new voter's register yes my lord even when the plan for registration was unveiled you denigrated it stating that it was calculated to favor the second respondent yes my lord and even subsequently vindicated that position you see i put it to you that you and your party including the petitioner viewed the chairperson of the respondents who joined this eyes and had a predetermined position on her alleged lack of neutrality my lord revealed her accurately and saw the reflection of hair in our eyes and that was the basis on which we made those statements so it is based on this unfounded prejudice that you have against the first chairman or the first responder that you are doing everything to discredit the elections my lord i have not said anywhere that the prejudices are unfounded i'm saying that they were founded on solid facts now you see i want you to look at exhibit 4 attached to the [Music] first respondent's witness statement actually i think we're back to the same problem is it going to be put as an identified document or what because [Music] now i'm suggesting to you for purposes of identification for the time being that this is the official form 13 b that is the declaration of presidential election with national summary have you seen it look at the first respondents witness statement and look for exhibits although respectfully it is for the council to put to him whatever document he wants to put to him it's not for him to look for a document i mean what is this for example first respondents witness statement is not in evidence it's not in evidence yet so my lord my first time of seeing this document as well as uh it was filed very well whenever even i never said it anywhere i've never signed it the agents at the strong room don't have their signatures here and the announcement the declaration that was made on the knife did not relate to any of the figures that i'm seeing here welcome come to that really relax so you look at the percentage the two of valid votes obtained by the second respondent what is it on this check on this document on these documents i can see 13 million hundred 121 four you see you've also made an error i said the total valid votes obtained by second respondent oh okay you see you have made a mistake yes everybody is capable of making mistakes but there are there are established ways of correcting every mistake in every situation in life please go on now read to the court the total number of votes obtained by the second respondent [Music] the witness can be made to be reading numbers from a document that is not in evidence my lord my purpose yes so that each of the votes attributed to each of the 12 candidates on this document is exactly what the chairperson of the first respondent declared on 9th december that's the significance it's the same [Music] the documentary but that's the problem you see you you you it's a good example you have to be patient very well both of you can speak at the same time i'm well advised so do so so so i'm saying that in your witness statement you have attached a video clip of the declaration by the chairperson of the first respondent yes do you want it to be played so that you can refresh your memory yes my lord very well i mean the the videotape is attached to our evidence at our appropriate time it can melody can be played but lord we need to we need to understand what is the purpose because we we cannot just go on in this manner when a document that we have tended in evidence they are going to determine when it is going to be played is that is that the procedure no no because you see there is a problem with this uh witness treatment which has been introduced yes you see what we normally do as you've done in this case is for you to exchange their prospective assets at least they they have a fair knowledge of the exhibits which you intend to tender equally so they also have a fair knowledge of the exhibits which you may tender so that is why probably you attach it not to take them by surprise yes and they they would want the court to have a sorry the witness who had it and next to the witness treatment to identify it and i think [Music] yes yes he said yes i think that the issue the issue is that counsel for the second respondent is showing the witness another document their document and he's saying that some information on this document that is showing him is the same as the information that you have exhibited yes but my lord respectfully that document he has said he's saying for he saw for the first time yes but you can't ask him why is that why is material from that document being used as if it is in evidence it is not in evidence he just wants to show you your own necessity if i remember correctly he wants to show you yes but himself he himself has tended that that exhibit and so i mean if he's going to be asked the question about it the question can proceed but he's saying that he wants that exhibit to be played at a certain time you know because he said he he doesn't remember that no he did not say that he said he was looking for the document that's what he said okay he didn't say it was not okay so so let him find it and then we proceed my lord i think that it is preposterous for counsel to say that evidence that he has tended i cannot ask the witness to look at that evidence and ask him questions not come to that we are resolving this matter november this objection has no basis [Music] my submission [Music] and he's saying that they have not played it yet so we cannot when they finish their evidence in chief when what they did very well so hey thank you don't you have your witness statement yes yeah is it not attached to your witness statement [Music] yes you

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Length: 113min 25sec (6805 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2021