EC HOT! 3 ON TRIAL IN UK FOR CORRUPTING AFARI DJAN IN 2012 BALLOT PRINTING Three staff and one agent of a British company which printed the pinksheets for Ghanas 2012 general elections are currently on trial in London, according to the latest report in the Africa Confidential. They are accused of corruptly obtaining the contract to print voting material for Ghana, among other African countries. This criminal trial in the United Kingdom brings into sharp focus the evidence which went unchallenged in Ghanas Supreme Court last year that more than double the number of statement of polls sheets (popularly known as pinksheets because of its colour) required for the 26,002 polling stations were printed. Moreover, whereas each pinksheet was meant to have serial numbers unique to a particular polling station, duplicates of the same serial numbers were printed and distributed for the 2012 elections. This resulted in some polling stations having two results sheets, often with the one showing a higher number of votes for the presidential candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress, being the one recorded and declared and recorded. The other African countries, where the three stand accused for corruption are Kenya, Mauritania and Somaliland. The prosecution named several officials of Kenya’s Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) in connection with the case, as well as its successor body which oversaw the controversial March 2013 general elections, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). As Africa Confidential went to press, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office was hoping to complete the prosecution case against the Eastbourne-based specialist printers Smith and Ouzman (S&O), an official said. The defendants are pleading not guilty to paying more than £400,000 (US$630,000) to public officials in the four countries in order to win tenders. The prosecution claims that £350,000 of that sum found its way, via an agent, into the accounts of officials of Kenya’s IIEC between October 2008 and December 2010. The leader of Ghanas main opposition, Nana Akufo-Addo, filed an election petition, with his running mate, Mahamudu Bawumia, and party chairman, Jake Obestebi-Lamptey, to challenge the results of the December 2012 presidential election, which had the incumbent winning by 50.7%. In the trial which lasted 8 months, the petitioners centred their case around the results as declared on the pinksheets, which contains the results from the various polling stations and are collated to declare a winner. Their case was that the integrity of the pinksheets was fundamentally compromised by the fact that an unusual and irregular decision was taken to print more copies and deliberately duplicate serial numbers so that results sheets could be manipulated. The petitioners lost the case in a controversial 5:4 split decision. Also in Kenya, the Coalition for Reform and Democracy leader Raila Odinga claimed on 18 November that the Jubilee Coalition, in conjunction with IEBC officials, had arranged for ‘extra ballot papers’ printed by S&O to be smuggled into Kenya and used in ‘Jubilee areas’ to tip the vote in the Alliance’s favour in March 2013. Odinga pointed out that in late 2012, the IEBC – which inherited many IIEC staff, including Chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan – had awarded S&O the contract to supply ballot papers for the 2013 elections. He called for the arrest of IEBC officials paid by the London defendants. However, where Kenya is concerned, the case now before the court only concerns S&O’s conduct up to the end of 2010 and has nothing to say about the 2013 poll or the printing contracts then awarded. S&O, the printers, has provided ballot papers for Kenyan elections since 1997. One of S&O’s rivals for the 2012 ballot contract petitioned a Kenyan court that the IEBC and S&O had breached procurement law over it. The IEBC said there had been no time to hold an open tender. The court rejected the petition. The London jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict around mid-December.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 09:06:13 +0000