UP claims 79 missing polling places

A ruling Unity Party (UP) expert witness Mr. Jeff Blebo says there were more missing polling places of 79 across ten precincts not recorded on the previous flash drive presented by the National Elections Commission (NEC) to seven political parties in September, and 31 precincts with more polling places missing from the data.

The UP expert witness told NEC Hearing Officer Cllr. Mauna S. Ville on Wednesday, 15 November that these missing polling places amounted to 35, 237 registered voters with 10 duplicated voters ID numbers.

He says the flash drive presented by NEC Executive Director Mr. Lamin Lighe is different from the previous flash drive that was given to seven political parties in September. “As an expert in data analysis it is very strange to have a system in which you have a leak data for each vote, one ID number could be used by multiple voters,” he says.

He notes that in the short period of time that he carried on his finding, he was able to run over two thousand names that were duplicated, noting that the FRR is distinct and different from the online system, and the flash drive that was given shows real discrepancy in their data.

The UP expert witness told the hearing that he summarized the differences between the two flash drives and reached a conclusion that the informations that were recorded on the recent flash drive presented by NEC during the hearing was far from the information on the previous flash drive given in September.

Witness Blebo who co-chairs the National Movement to support Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai’s presidential bid, claims that the two flash drives given to him to carry on analysis were different, saying the flash drives given to the UP in September has flawless data.

He did a demonstration of the evidence on a projector screen during the hearing. The flash drive being contested by the UP is said to contain the Final Registration Roll for the 10 October presidential and representatives’ elections led by opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and the UP.

A runoff between the CDC and UP is being tabled to allow the NEC, and where necessary, the Supreme Court to hear and finalize a legal challenge filed against the outcome of the 10 October polls by opposition Liberty Party (LP) and backed by the UP and other parties.

Mr. Blebo tells NEC Hearing Officer Cllr. Ville that he received two flash drives for the purposes of analyzing and determining whether the two have the same information, using his computer to carry out his findings.

By Lewis S.Teh–Edited by Winston W. Parley