KEY POINTS
- Election officials and electronic experts must be severely punished for tampering.
- Afari Gyan emphasizes that voters’ choices should be protected at all costs.
- Authentic “pink sheets” are critical to contesting election results in court.
Former chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, has demanded strict penalty for election officials and the electronic experts who have been involved in manipulating the election results.
When delivering his speech at the annual conference of the Ghana Bar Association, he stressed the importance of such violations, and expressing his opinion, called the mentioned actions treasonous. In the opinion of Afari Gyan, election administrators and technocrats understand what they are doing, and therefore, are the worst offenders.
“While a voter can offend without knowing the fact, an election official or an expert is aware of everything they are doing”, he said.
Professor Afari Gyan has also said that increased penalties will help deter individuals from engaging in the unlawful acts and eliminate corruption in the voting process.
He insisted that the sentiments of the people, which are encapsulated in votes that hold democratic merits, should be sacrosanct at all times.
The significance of other essential documents, collectively known as pink sheets
During the interview, Dr. Afari Gyan also noted the importance of ‘pink sheets’, which are the official papers used for recording of election results.
He advised political parties and candidates to make certain that they have genuine pink sheets, which have been signed and stamped as required by law before approaching the courts in the Supreme Court to seek a review of the election results.
Authentic pink sheets as we Ghanaian would put it, think twice before you go to court; this advice coming from Afari Gyan.
These pink sheets, which are utilized at the polling stations and then consolidated at the constituency and regional levels, form the basis of announcing the winners of the elections. Their accuracy is paramount in the electoral process as they are the original records relied on to reconstruct the results of the election.
In his reaction, Afari Gyan has indeed called for openness and responsibility in election administration, cautioning other stakeholders to be vigilant in order to ensure the sanctity of the electoral process.
