THE THOUGHTS ROOM

Electoral Commission Chairman, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan has told the Supreme Court that presiding officers were given the discretion to admit unstamped ballots as part of valid votes cast during the 2012 general elections. He told the court, Wednesday that, “the presiding officer and those who are at the polling station may decide upon doing certain investigations that ballot (unstamped ballots) may be acceptable.” Dr Afari-Gyan made this admission when lead counsel for the petitioners, Mr Philip Addison pointed out to the second respondent that there were some irregularities on the pink sheets as presiding officers had appended their signatures to the pink sheets before voting started, whereas some presiding officers failed to sign the pink sheets even after the results had been declared at the polling station. Dr Afari-Gyan explained to the court that although he did not know of such occurrences, irregularities were bou

Nana Akomea, NPP Communications Director Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akomea has said the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party followed due process before reaching the decision to suspend one of its members, Dr Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby. According to him, Dr Wereko-Brobby’s decision to reject the letter containing his suspension notice does not invalidate the action taken by the NEC. Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, in an interview with Joy FM, an Accra based radio station on Monday said he rejected a letter purported to have contained his suspension which had been sent to his house on behalf of the party. He explained he refused to accept the letter because it had “illegal” contents. The letter addressed to Dr. Wereko-Brobby, dated May 31, 2013 and signed by Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Abdulai Fuhlanba said Dr Wereko-Brobby had breached Article 3D (duties of a member) I, II, III and IV of the party’s constitution. However,