The panel of judges hearing the election petition has rejected a request by the lawyers for the respondents for a full audit of the pink sheets submitted by the petitioners saying a recount would not affect the case for now .
Lawyers for the respondents had asked for a full audit of the pink sheets submitted by the petitioners as evidence in the petition challenging the validity of the 2012 presidential elections .
According to the lawyers, since the second petitioner, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia admitted during cross-examination that some of the pink sheets were duplicated, there was the need for an audit.
Lawyer for the President, Tony Lithur said the admission by Dr. Bawumia and the number of pink sheets available to the respondents shows that the number of the pink of sheets submitted was not up to the 11, 138 as claimed by the petitioners.
“We respectfully plead at this stage to have a referee appointed to count the pink sheets that have been submitted as exhibits to this court. We make this application because right from the application for further and better particulars, when they were provided we indicated that the petitioners had not provided the particulars of all the polling stations. The number of pink sheets based on which this whole suit is based has not been made available to us and to the court either as has been shown by cross examination,” he said.
However, lawyers for the petitioners said an audit of the pink sheet is not as necessary as the an audit of the votes.
Lawyer for the Petitioners, Philip Addison said they have submitted a CD-ROM which will show that none of the pink sheets was duplicated in its analysis of the votes.
“We are also of the view that there should be an audit of the polling station and the votes. For us what is important is the number of votes, not so much the number of polling stations.”
The judges however said the respondents could reapply as the case proceeds
