If NPP Had Recruited �Literates� As Polling Agents, They Wouldn�t Have Been In Court

A member of the NDC�s legal team, Abraham Amaliba has charged all political parties across board to learn serious lessons from the ongoing Supreme Court case which he believes can be narrowed down to the petty mistakes committed by polling agents who could neither read nor write. According to Lawyer Amaliba, if a well-organised party like the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had concentrated on recruiting competent and literate hands, they would not have sent a petition to the Supreme Court seeking to challenge the declaration of Mr Mahama as president by the Electoral Commission (EC). He pointed out that the era of recruiting �family members only� and �cronies� to act as polling agents for political parties, should be flushed out of the system, adding that the recruitment of such persons should be based on competency since that is the only cure for mischief at the polling stations. �In this trial, we have been made aware that most of the presiding members and the agents from the various political parties were incompetent. A lot of them are to be blamed for the problems that have come up. They had difficulties filling the portion for entrants". �If they (NPP) are going to recruit people, they don�t recruit the right people�they just handpick family members and cronies. They can�t write anything and they were the same people they presented as presiding members and polling agents. If you look at the pink sheet, instead of writing figures at the column for number of ballots issued, they write it at the column for the number of votes cast�, he said.