Pink Sheet, Collation Sheet And Ballot Boxes

There is every indication that Madam Charlotte Osei and her Electoral Commission wish to rig the 2016 elections at all cost in favour of the ruling party’s candidate.

Right from the day of her appointment as the chairperson of the EC, Madam Charlotte Osei has not taken one single decision or step that suggests that she wants to conduct credible, transparent, free and fair elections in Ghana. 

All arrangements, plans, activities and exercises geared towards the preparations for and conduct of the 2016 elections have been faulty, controversial and pregnant with sheer arrogance, stubbornness and impudence on her part. To say that she has been and is still exhibiting incompetence, disrespect and insensitivity towards the concern of the stakeholders and especially the sovereign people of Ghana is just stating the obvious. But it appears, and rightly so, from her conduct and utterances that she has a hidden agenda to “crown” EA Mahama’s son for an underserved electoral victory in December 2016. 

Her latest effusion from the United Kingdom and the dealings in Ghana confirm these assertions. Madam Charlotte Osei had the impudence to announce in the UK that she might stop the declaration of the Presidential results if the results are too close and would rather call for a recount. She justified that more by the EC in order to avoid a declaration of a wrong person as the winner of the election.

Ei Ama Alata!! Is that where you want to take a nation blessed with gold and oil to? Do you realize the danger in that statement? How are the results going to be compiled? Are we going to declare the results of all Polling Stations or not? Are those results going to be entered on the “Pink Sheets” or not? 

Are the results on the “Pink Sheets” going to be entered on the “Collation sheets” or not? If the information (results) on the “Collation Sheets” will they be changed (doctored) by the EC, their officials/agents and their accomplices in the NDC? 

If the results declared at the Polling Stations are correct and a true reflection of what happened there (in terms of valid votes and actual votes cast) and the same is put on the collation sheets which are also put together naturally, how can a wrong person be declared the winner? 

In any case, when will the election be too close for the chairperson of the EC to call for a recount? Is it when the difference between the first and second candidates is less than 1% of the valid votes cast or in terms of numbers such as fifty thousand votes or what?

What is the position of the law on the declaration of a winner in the presidential elections in Ghana? Is it not and has it not always been in favor of the candidate who obtains more than 50% of the valid votes (the so called 50+1)? 

In percentage terms, the winner must have 50+% which could be 50.0001% or 50.0002% or 50.0004% or 50.0005% or 50.1%. The most important thing is that the winning candidate must have more than half of the total valid votes such that if the votes of all the other candidates or the only other candidate (when there is a Run-Off) are put together they (the votes) will be less than half or 50% of the total valid votes. So where is the justification for Ama Alata’s “dangerous statement”?

When one juxtaposes her statement on the deliberate omissions in the CI 94 on the 2016 elections and the controversial award of the contract on printing of the Pink Sheets and Collation sheets to “AeroVote Limited” then one can understand where Madam Charlotte Osei is coming from.

Madam Osei and her EC had been silent on the contract for the printing of the Pink Sheets at IPAC and other forums until media reports suggested that the EC has awarded an $8 million contract to a liquidated firm in the UK. 

While the printing of ballot papers for the Parliamentary elections had been known, the “According Materials” (Pink Sheets and Collation Sheets) were yet to be printed. No mention had been made of that even though they formed the evidential base of the Election Petition in the 2012 elections.

I would like to challenge Madam Charlotte Osei on the so-called contract signed with AeroVote Limited. We would also like to challenge her about the fact that the right procurement process was applied in the award of the contract and that AeroVote Limited satisfied all the requirements. 

What Madam Charlotte Osei does not know or is pretending not to know or does not care to know is that, everything about the Pink Sheets and Collation Sheets is at the instance of and in the interest of the NDC.

The EC of Ghana used to deal with AeroVote Limited (UK) when it was solvent and was printing election materials for Kenya and Ghana. But the company (AeroVote Limited) had become insolvent and had been liquidated in the United Kingdom. The liquidation had become known to the EC, NDC and Dr. Afari Gyan. So a plan was hatched to acquire the printing equipment in order to set up company in Ghana for the printing of election materials (Pink Sheets and Collation Sheets) for Ghana’s elections.

The equipment was bought by the NDC. It is said that the man whose travel and tours company was indicted by a government of Ghana report was the one who facilitated and enabled the purchase of the equipment to be effected.

A company had hurriedly been formed in Ghana in December 2015 by three known NDC members as a private company thereby satisfying the minimum capital requirement of five hundred Ghana cedis (GH¢500.00) or five million old Ghana cedis. 

Again, as a Private Company, the Company formed in Ghana “Aerovote Security Printing Ghana Limited” met the minimum number of directors requirement of two by having three directory namely, Kofi Burah Asomaning of Platinum Securities, Tyrese Nii Dodoo of Bubuashie and John Tetteh Akwerh of Trust Resources Limited.

With the formation of Aerovate Security Printing Ghana Limited, the guy who allows his baby mama to put behind bars by operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations with funds, contracts and the directors at his disposal caused the equipment to be shipped to Ghana. 

The equipment got to Ghana in 2016 – as per the NDC’s plan – and was originally to be installed at the Accra Airport in the premises of an existing Aviation company. A director and partner of the Aviation Company who has been very instrumental in the formation of the new company – Aerovote Security Printing Ghana Limited – was tasked to clear the equipment from the Port. He encountered some difficulties initially.

Customs officials at the Port discovered that in addition to the equipment, there were large quantities of already printed Pink Sheets and Collation Sheets as part of the consignment.

The discovery aroused the suspicion of the Customs Officers who detected that the Pink and Collation Sheets were the same as those used for the 2012 elections in Ghana. The director clearing the consignment quickly contacted the fat and short guy at the Presidency. With the “coercive” power of the former chief executive of the Ghana Tourism Authority who now operates from the Presidency, the goods were released for the director concerned to conduct his businesses.

The director have to look for a new location to install the equipment to start the test printing before the main operations of printing the number of Pink Sheets and Collation Sheets that would be required by the EC of Ghana and the NDC  to ensure victory for EA Mahama’s son.

The directors were able to find a new location on the Spintex Road in Accra at a hidden place to undertake the operations.

I wish to put it on authority that the former chief executive of the Ghana Tourism Authority who now operates from the Presidency was responsible for the acquisition of the equipments and its shipment to Ghana and formation of the company. He was the one who entered into agreement with Aerovote Security Printing Ghana Limited to print the Pink Sheets and Collation Sheets and not the EC of Ghana.

Everything is being done on behalf of the EC by the Presidency to ensure that, EA Mahama’s son wins again.

I challenge Madam Osei to produce all the relevant documentation on the contract with Aerovote   Limited which she claims has relocated to Ghana.

I expect Madam Osei to provide all the relevant information about Aerovote Limited. As part of due diligence, Madam Osei and her EC had to have full information on a company that was or is responsible for printing sensitive electoral materials for Ghana’s crucial elections in 2016.

Again, Madam Osei and the EC should provide all the relevant information about the “Relocated Aerovote Limited” in Ghana. For example, who are the directors and Agents of the “Relocated Aerovote Limited”?

Where are the offices of this company? What are the inscriptions, the logo, insignia and the other relevant means of identification associated with Relocated Aerovote Limited? 

When was this Relocated Company was issued a certificate for commencement of business in Ghana? Did it file all the relevant returns to the Registrar General’s Department? If yes, what are the details on the returns?

For instance, can the EC Chair make available to Ghanaians copies of the regulations of the “Relocated Aerovote Limited? What are the details in the Regulations? What is the nature of the core business of this company in Ghana? Who are the first or named directors of this company? 

What are the powers of these directors? What limitations were or have been placed on the powers of these directors? What are the total registered shares of this company? How are these shares owned? What is the par or nominal value of a share in this company?

As part of her duty of due diligence, care and skill, Madam Osei must provide documentary evidence and responses to these pertinent questions. No arrogant, please madam!!

I understand that Aerovote Security Printing Ghana Limited is now in the final phase of installation and test trials for the printing of the electoral materials.

My understanding is that the company needed sometime to become fully operational as at 28^th October, 2016 hence the decision by the EC to challenge the candidacy of Dr. Nduom at the Supreme Court to enable “its partners in crime” to become ready before the printing of the electoral materials which may also include the printing of Presidential Ballot Papers.

The aim of the NDC and the EC is to have a Ghanaian registered company owned by the NDC and its surrogates who will be in charge of printing electoral materials for Ghana’s EC from 2016 to ad infinitum. This is a poly to have the capacity to rig current and future elections in Ghana.

The Indians and Kenyans who are partnering the Ghanaians NDC members and agents are fully aware of and happy with these arrangements. Mr. Asiedu Nketiah has always been remarking that, while the NDC is always strategizing to win elections (indeed rig elections), the NPP seems to be more concerned with fair play, transparency, free and fair elections and the role of law. The NDC has always been improving upon its mode of rigging elections. 

Specially trained persons in rigging from the NDC have willing partners at the EC who share ideas, polish, improve upon and re-engineer new strategies and tactics for that purpose in every election year. Thus, the NDC never wins election but manages to get a declaration of victory at all crucial elections.

…to be continued