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Registration Roll shows the number of registered voters; that the Final
Registration Roll was not published; that the Final Registration Roll is
published by placing it at various .precincts and polling places. Witness
Johnson-Allison sated that her testimony was based on news reports.
Witness David Menyongai testified that it had been a long time since he served
at the NEC and that he could not remember anything.
Witness Dennis Saah Popay testified that he is a registered voter who went to
vote at the Rock International; that his name was not found in the FRR; but
that he was allowed to vote after his name was written on an addendum.
Witness Nou Kenneh testified that after he voted at the Muslim Solidarity
Elementary and Junior High School, he came out and saw people crying with
their voter cards in their hands `we want vote,' we want vote'; that he took
their photos with his phone, that Hon. Sekou Kenneh told him to go in the
community and find people who did not vote because their names were not
in the FRR; that they went in the community and collected voter cards from
people and some people refused to give their cards.
On November 17, 2017, the Unity Party rested with the production of oral and
documentary evidence, and introduced 'into evidence instruments marked
C/1 thru C/22.
TESTIMONIES OF WITNESSES CALLED BY THE NEC
On November 18, 2017, Defendant NEC took the witness stand. In presenting
its side of the case, Defendant called two witnesses in persons of C.A. Lamin'.
Lighe, Executive Director of the NEC; and Joseph A. Yarsiah, Director of
Political Affairs. Witness Lighe testified essentially that the elections were
free, fair and transparent; that it is the first in our election] history that the
polling staff met voters in the queue as early as 4:00 a. ran., making it a
challenge for some queue controllers to place voters in their proper queue to
vote; that there were challenges in the recruitment of competent polling staff;
that the Commission had earlier requested professional institutions to offer
professionals to serve as polling stagy f but only one institution responded;
that the staff experienced difficulty in locating some voters on the FRR and in
directing them to their proper polling places: that no new names were added
to the FRR; that the procedure referred to as addendum/addition to the FRR
is practiced in other electoral jurisdictions and has been consistently used by
the NEC in the 2005, 2011, and 2014 elections, that ballot papers only carry
serial number on the stubs; that at the Tokpaipolu Public 'School, the Presiding
Officer inadvertently wrote 1109 for the CDC, but that same was corrected to
reflect the actual votes of 110; that Appellants' witnesses Wilmot Paye and
Josiah Joekai's testimonies that their names were not on the FRR are false.
Witness Yarsiah "testified that all political Parties -- including the Appellants - were informed of all major activities of the Commission through the IPCC
meetings, that the political parties were informed of and taught how to use
the SMS system and that Appellants' witness J. Cole Bangalu's phone number
was used during the demonstration; that he informed the political parties of
the preparation for the run-off, that the Unity Party and the Coalition for
Democratic Change agreed to go to run-off; that both the CDC and UP have
asked and the Commission has accepted that two party observers be allowed
in the polling place during the run-off, that few polling places opened late in
Sinoe County due to the overflowing of the river; that poll workers faced
challenge in getting materials to certain polling places. Witness Yarsiah played