EC destroys defective ballot papers for Ahafo, Volta regions

The Electoral Commission (EC) yesterday afternoon destroyed defective ballot papers printed for the Ahafo and Volta regions for the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The ballot papers were destroyed at the Adipa Waste Management Centre, near Nsawam in the Eastern Region.

The ballot papers became defective due to serialisation errors encountered during the printing process.

The affected ballots were destroyed in the presence of representatives of political parties, the National Intelligence Bureau, the Ghana Police Service, the media and officials of the EC.

The destroyed materials included 184 presidential ballot paper bags and 66 parliamentary ballot paper bags for the Volta Region, as well as 67 presidential and 21 parliamentary bags for the Ahafo Region.

Briefs

Briefing journalists after the exercise, the Deputy Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Asante Kissi, said the destruction of the defective materials was in line with the commission's commitment to protect the integrity of the electoral process.

"We want to assure the public that we have destroyed all the defective ballot papers to prevent any potential issues during the elections," Mr Kissi stated.

"The commission has been transparent throughout this process, and we invited the public to witness the destruction of these materials," he added.

Mr Kissi stressed that the exercise was not intended to give an advantage or disadvantage to any political party.

"We have ensured transparency throughout this process and all stakeholders, including political party agents, have endorsed the disposal certificates," he said.

Mr Kissi added that the exercise was part of the commission's efforts to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.

"By destroying the defective ballot papers, the commission demonstrates its commitment to transparency and fairness," he said.

Statistics

The Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the EC, Fred Tetteh, provided detailed statistics of the destroyed materials.

They comprised 9,536 booklets of presidential ballot papers, each having 100 leaflets; 1,119 booklets of 50 leaflets, 1,082 booklets of 25 leaflets, and 8,970 booklets of 10 leaflets.

The parliamentary ballot papers were of the same figures as the presidential.

Background

The EC had earlier announced plans to reprint the ballot papers for the Ahafo and Volta regions, which would be handled by Bucks Press and Acts Commercials.

At an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting last week, the Deputy Chairperson of the EC in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, said the commission had recalled both ballot papers for Ahafo and Volta regions due to serialisation errors during the printing of the materials.