Rejected ballots, a threat to the growth of our democracy

Although Ghana’s democracy is growing by the day, the voting process is still an issue the electorate have to grapple with. This has led to the incidence of high numbers of spoilt or rejected ballots in all elections. 

Undoubtedly, the issue of spoilt or rejected ballots has become one of the key things that go to undermine the will of the electorate and ultimately affects the country’s electoral processes.

Clearly, high numbers of spoilt ballots affect the democratic choice of who becomes President or Member of Parliament (MP). 

In 1992, rejected ballots accounted for 3.6 per cent of the valid votes cast. This reduced to 1.53 per cent in 1996. In the first round of the 2000 general election, it accounted for 1.8 per cent of the valid votes cast but reduced to 1.58 per cent during the presidential run-off. In 2004, it started souring and constituted 2.2 per cent of the votes cast while in 2008 it went up further, recording an overall 2.4 per cent of the valid votes cast. The trend continued with the 2012 polls.

Indeed, according to EC records, the number of rejected ballots recorded in the first round of the 2008 presidential race was unprecedentedly higher than ever; both in terms of percentages and in terms of figures. As many as 205,438 ballots, which constituted 2.4 per cent of 8,671,272 total votes cast, were rejected in the 2008 elections. Many political pundits have posited that the “Rejected Ballot Party” placed third in the 2008 presidential race and that if rejected ballots were a political party it could boast a steady increase in popularity ahead of the smaller parties since Ghana’s return to multi-party democracy in 1992. 

In the 2012 general election, the number of rejected ballots stood at 251,720 (2.3 per cent). Although the number of rejected ballots as a percentage of the total votes cast reduced by 0.13 per cent from the 2008 rate of 2.4 per cent  to 2.3 per cent  in 2012, the 2012 rate was still higher than the 2004 rate of 2.2 per cent. Again, the number of rejected ballots in 2012 was higher than the total votes of all the other presidential candidates excluding those of the NDC and the NPP.

Over the years, the nation has been saddled with this canker of spoilt ballots and efforts to nip it in the bud have been Herculean. 

This is definitely not good for a growing democracy and it must be a matter of greater concern to all stakeholders, particularly the election management body, the Electoral Commission (EC), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and all the political parties.

With the 2016 election fast approaching, the task to halt or reduce the incidence of spoilt or rejected ballots in the country should be a collective responsibility.

The EC, the NCCE and all political parties must be proactive in stepping up electoral education programmes or campaigns to help reduce the canker.

Because every vote counts, it is equally imperative for the electorate to be made to appreciate the need for greater caution when marking a ballot paper.

Polling agents must also be alive to their civic responsibilities by being vigilant at polling stations and keeping close watch on election officials who may want to indulge in deliberate acts to invalidate ballots. 

These, the Daily Graphic believes, will go a long way to help curb or reduce the high incidence of spoilt ballots.

As the nation puts in effort to find a more credible, free, fair and transparent electoral process, it is our view  that the high incidence of rejected ballots that have characterised our elections over the years will be a thing of the past and will no longer pose a threat to our democratic growth and gains.