Dr Osae-Kwapong expresses concern over reprinting of ballot papers for Ahafo, Volta

The Project Director, Democracy Project, Dr John Osae-Kwapong, has expressed concern about the reprinting of ballot papers for the Ahafo and Volta regions by the Electoral Commission (EC).

“Given the trust challenges facing the EC, such news unfortunately goes to further deepen citizens' mistrust in the EC. Of course, mistakes can happen, but in the current context, there is no room for "honest mistakes," he told the Daily Graphic yesterday.

He gave credit to the EC for explaining what happened but as to whether it satisfied the public was yet to be known. 

Context

The EC held an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting last Friday where it announced the reprinting of ballot papers for the Ahafo and Volta regions due to challenges with the serial numbering of the ballot papers.

It said it was based on the commission's own audit process instituted at all printing houses responsible for printing ballot papers for the 2024 elections.

“Our audit revealed that the printing house that was printing the ballots for Ahafo and Volta had encountered a number of challenges.

While the printing of the ballots had gone on seamlessly, the serialisation which was supposed to be done through an automated system to provide serial numbers based on a sequence had gaps. As a result, a manual system was adopted by the printing house to fill the gaps,” the EC said in a statement.

It explained that upon further assessment, the EC decided that the manual system was not foolproof and could, therefore, not be relied upon to produce an accurate serialisation of the ballots, hence the decision to reprint the ballot papers and accordingly inform the political parties at an Emergency IPAC Meeting last Friday.

Integrity

Dr Osae-Kwapong said although it might not affect the integrity of the elections “ it does potentially create the adverse effect of sowing misgivings in the minds of voters.”He, therefore, urged the printing houses and other institutions whose services the EC contracts to appreciate fully what was at stake and the issue of mistrust currently facing the EC.

He wondered what could have happened if there was not enough time for the reprinting.

Dr Osae-Kwapong urged political parties to be vigilant at the polls.

“The disposal of the unusable ballots must be done in the presence of all political parties to give assurance and ward off any suspicions,” he said.

NPP

The Director of Research and Elections of the NPP, Evans Nimako, said the NPP had no issues with the EC as the decision to reprint the ballot papers was a purely administrative one by the EC.

He said at a point in time, the EC notified the political parties of the challenges with the serial numbers of the ballot papers for those two regions.

That, he explained, was in order.

He, however, cautioned ballot paper issuers to avoid the 2020 incidents in some areas where the NPP’s candidate was torn off the lists of presidential candidates.

Mr Nimako asked all officials of the NPP to comply with the directives of the EC on election day.

For his part, the Deputy Director of Elections and IT of the NDC, Dr Tanko Rashid Computer, urged the new printers to be diligent and do the needful.

He acknowledged that the new printers had the capacity to print the ballot papers and would therefore not have issues printing them.

Destruction of materials

In a statement signed by the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, the EC said a quantity of electoral materials for the Ahafo and Volta Regions were burnt last Saturday.

“The destroyed materials were made up of excess/scrap ballot papers and plates used for the printing of the presidential and parliamentary ballots for the Ahafo and Volta regions,” it said.

It said the destruction of the materials was witnessed by the agents of the political parties, the National Intelligence Bureau, National Security, Ghana Police Service and the EC.

It said the EC yesterday accounted for all the ballot papers printed for both regions that would be burnt subsequently due to challenges with the serial numbers.

“The commission will inform the political parties and other stakeholders in due course to enable them to observe the destruction of these ballot papers,” it said.

Serialisation issues

It stated that the challenges with serialisation were brought to the attention of the commission by the EC team stationed at the said printing house and confirmed by the Audit Department of the Commission.

It stressed that no political party, whether formally or informally, notified the commission about the challenges with serialisation at the printing house, even though their agents were present throughout the process. 

“In the view of the commission, the decision to reprint the ballot papers for Ahafo and Volta was based solely on reports from the EC Team at the said printing house and confirmed by its Audit Department,” it emphasised.