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(e) But allowing individuals carrying "valid Registration Cards," whose names
are not found in the Voter Registration Roll, is subject to two conditions: (i)
the Registration Card should be verified through the SMS verification system
managed by the NEC. This was not done! (ii) If the person carrying such
"Registration Card" is on the list of persons provided by the NEC who have
been removed from the Registration Roll, either because of double
registrations, or because such persons [are] underage, such persons should
not be allowed to vote. Again, the verification was never done by the NEC!
Now, whether those who left the polling places prior to the NEC's
announcement, allowing every person carrying a voter registration card to
vote, were legitimate voters deprived of their constitutional right to vote; or,
those who voted, following the NEC announcement, were individuals who
should not have been allowed to vote are questions the answers to which will
never be known because of the failure of the NEC to perform the statutorily
required verifications. The failure by the NEC to comply with the mandatory
statutory requirements put into doubt the legitimacy of the elections and
creates a cloud of doubt over the elections, warranting a rerun of the
elections, and the complainants so pray.
(f) Paragraph (d) above notwithstanding, the question remains as to how many
persons heard the NEC radio announcement. The presumption is that not
many, as those who were not allowed to vote were commuting away from
polling places without access to radio at the time of the announcement.
Complainants submit that the wrongful and illegal acts on the part of the
election officials should not be permitted to disenfranchise voters, as the voter
cannot and should not be called upon to police the actions of election officials.
As examples of some individuals who were turned away because their names
were said not to be on the FRR, complainants give notice that during the trial
they will produce copies of voters ID cards of such individuals, and/or their
affidavits.
4. The Presiding Officer's Worksheet of the NEC
(a) The Presiding Officer's Worksheet of the NEC was not used by the NEC at
the various polling places. Among other things, the Presiding Officer's
Worksheet would have indicated the starting and ending serial numbers of
ballots used at a polling place, making it difficult for ballots in the ballot boxes
to be replaced while in transit from the polling place to the magistrate. And
the Presiding Officer's Worksheet would have been signed by party agents. In
the absence of serial numbers, there is no way of knowing whether the ballots
in the ballot boxes were those that were either cast at a polling place, assigned
and delivered to the polling places, or ballots that were surreptitiously stuffed
in the ballot boxes after polling had closed. The above notwithstanding, [the]
absence of the Presiding Officer's Worksheet takes a whole new dimension,
knowing that information such as "Number of ballot papers that should be in
the ballot box," "Number of the ballot papers taken from the ballot box,"
among others, are all said to have been copied from Presiding Officer's
Worksheet, to the Record of Count. This cast a cloud of doubt over the
elections warranting a rerun of the elections, and the complainants so pray.
Copies of the Presiding Officer's Worksheet and the Record of Count are
hereto attached together, as complainants' Exhibit "C."
(b) Strangely enough, the complainants have not noticed any ballot used in
the October 10, 2017 [elections], that has serial number. The complainants