EC has modified pink sheets – Afari Gyan

The Electoral Commission has modified the ‘pink’ sheets used to collate election results, chairman of the commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan has announced.

This, according to the commission was a response to the recommendations by the Supreme Court for the pink sheets to be made simple.

Dr Afari Gyan made this known at a training workshop for electoral officers at Ho in the Volta region. He said the modified sheet was used at the Lower Manya District Assembly Elections.

The form on which the Statement of Poll and Declaration of Result for the office of President and Parliament is recorded in Ghana is known as the pink sheet. It is called pink because it is coloured pink.

In the 2012 Elections, results collated on pink sheets and subsequently declared by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), inured to the benefit of President Mahama, but Nana Akufo-Addo and two others, per their arguments, said the pink sheets from 11,138 polling stations were “tainted” with gross and widespread irregularities and were 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, therefore challenged the declaration of President Mahama as winner of the 2012 presidential election based on the pink sheets they had in their possession.

Sittings at the Supreme Court where the petition was heard was heavily characterised by objections and counter-objections relating to both filed and unfiled pink sheets.

The expression “pink sheet” became so popular that it caught up in all manner of conversations in Ghana.

As part of the Supreme Court’s ruling that affirmed the EC's declaration of President Mahama as winner the elections, one of the Judges, Justice Jones Dotse for instance had many of his recommendations on the pink sheets.

He said it was too elaborate and advised the the EC to simplify it as well as manage the serial numbers of the pink sheets well .

Addressing the participants at the Ho workshop, Dr Afari Gyan said the modification was a follow up to the Supreme Court recommendations.

He urged political parties to select mature people to represent them as agents at polling stations and said agents were very important in an election.

Listen to Dr Afari Gyan in the attached audio

{mp3}gyan_pink_sheets{/mp3}