Special voting in Eastern, Western regions rescheduled - Exercise to go ahead in 14 regions

The Electoral Commission (EC) has rescheduled the special voting exercise for the Eastern and Western regions from today to Thursday, December 5, 2024, due to the recall of printed ballot papers for the two regions.

Reprinting of the ballot papers for the two regions was scheduled to commence last night.

The recall of the printed ballots and reprinting of ballots for the two regions were sanctioned by the EC in consultation with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) after it was detected that a single defaced ballot paper earmarked for destruction had found its way out of the Checkpoint Limited printing house, according to the EC.

Speaking at a news conference in Accra on Sunday, the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, explained that, “On Friday night, the EC was informed by the National Security that one single defaced ballot paper meant for the Eastern Region had been taken out of the printing house of Checkpoint Limited supervised by the National Intelligence Bureau, the National Security, the police, as well as the agents of the political parties and staff of the EC”.

“This single defaced paper had been earmarked for destruction by burning. For some reason, it found its way out of the printing house. It is also important to note that Checkpoint Limited had had a long history of having a record with the EC, and has printed ballots for the commission since 1992,” Mrs Mensa said.

She indicated that in light of the revelation, the commission, together with the political parties, took the decision that in order to ensure guaranteed integrity, transparency and accountability of the election in the Eastern Region, the ballot papers for the region should be recalled.

The EC Chairperson stressed that the decision to also reprint the ballots for the Western Region was due to the fact that Checkpoint Limited was also in charge of the ballots for that region.

Reprinting

The EC Chairperson indicated that Buck Press, Inolink and Art Commercials had been contracted to undertake the reprinting exercise for the two regions.

She said the reprinted ballots would have additional features and revised serial numbers to ensure the security of the ballot papers and to differentiate them from any fake or any leakages from the Checkpoint Limited materials that might have found themselves out of the printing house.

“It is important to note that in order to ensure the integrity of the ballot paper, the commission will introduce new security features of the ballots that will be printed for the Eastern Region and the Western Region.

“In addition to that, the serial numbers of those ballots for the two regions will be revised. This is to ensure that there will be a marked difference between what has already gone and what has already been printed, and what will be printed starting this evening,” the EC Chairperson said.

Appeal

Mrs Mensa appealed to the public, especially the security services, media personnel and officials of the commission for the two regions affected by the recall of the ballots to bear with the EC.

“As we all know, the special voting brings together citizens and has helped the authorities in undertaking duties on election day. The security agencies, as well as the media personnel, will not be able to do that in the two regions,” she said.

She emphasised that the sole objective of the EC was to ensure the integrity of the elections in both regions, stating that the recall of the ballot did not wipe out the EC’s values and principles of ensuring the integrity of the elections.

The EC Chairperson called on the political parties to continue to collaborate with the commission by deploying their agents to the printing houses to monitor the exercise to ensure transparency, accountability and integrity of the printing process and the election.

Reactions

The Director of Elections and Information Technology (IT) for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Edward Omane Boamah, in an interview with the Daily Graphic commended the EC for the decision to recall the printed ballots for reprint.

Dr Boamah indicated that the new features and revision of the serial numbers were very critical as it could be that the perpetrators of the illegality might want to study the features on the ballot papers printed by Checkpoint Limited to replicate them for ballot stuffing.

Dr Boamah called on the security agencies to name the culprits involved in taking out the ballots earmarked for destruction and to bring the perpetrators to book.

The Director of Elections for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Evans Nimako, also commended the EC for the quick action, and called on the selected print houses to “ensure that they go through the exercise fairly, going by the rules of the game”.

He called on the security agencies to up their game and ensure that the right things were done at the printing houses to protect the integrity of the printing process and the elections in general.

Mr Nimako appealed to voters who would take part in the special voting today to undertake the exercise with decorum and in a peaceful manner while appealing to the affected special voters to bear with the EC and partake in the exercise on Thursday.  

The People’s National Convention (PNC) Chairman, Samson Asaki Awingobit, commended the EC for its work so far.

He indicated that the integrity of the election was paramount to ensure that every step of the process was free, fair and transparent.

Special voting

A total of 131,478 special voters are on the special voting list, with the exercise scheduled to go ahead today in 14 regions.

The figure represents 0.007 per cent of the 18.7 million voter population.

The exercise will start at 7:00 a.m. and end at 5:00 p.m.

Those eligible to cast their ballot are personnel of security agencies, election officials and media personnel who applied for the special voting and are put on the Special Voting List to enable them to cast their ballots.

It will precede the December 7, 2024 general election.

The exercise will take place in 328 special voting centres across the 276 constituencies, including the newly created Guan Constituency, in the Oti Region.

The special voting exercise is intended for applicants who are registered voters but are unable to vote on election day due to their election-day activities.

Any voter who is on the Special Voting List but does not vote on the Special Voting Day cannot vote on December 7, 2024, because he or she will be on the Absent Voters List at the polling station where he or she wants to vote.

Breakdown

The Ahafo Region has seven polling stations, the Ashanti Region has 52, Bono Region has 14, Bono East has 14, Central Region has 31, Eastern Region has 36, while the Greater Accra Region has 52 polling stations for the special voting exercise.

North East Region has eight polling stations, Northern Region has 19, Oti Region has nine, Savannah Region also has nine, Upper East Region,16, Upper West Region,13, Volta Region has 22, Western Region, 17, while Western North Region has nine.

Per the rules, all ballot boxes shall be properly sealed and kept in a secured room at a police station within the constituency.

Ballots cast on the Special Voting Day will only be counted at the Constituency Collation Centre after close of poll on election day, December 7, 2024.

The Returning Officer at the Constituency Collation Centre shall record the results of the Special Voting ballots separately on both the Presidential and Parliamentary Election Results Collation Forms.

The results will then be added to the results from all the polling stations before declaring the constituency results.

EC ready

Speaking at the Electoral Commission's (EC's) press briefing dubbed "Let the citizen know" in Accra last Friday, the EC chairperson announced the commission's readiness to conduct the special voting exercise.

"The special voting exercise is a crucial aspect of our electoral process, and we are pleased to inform you that we are ready to conduct a transparent, credible and peaceful exercise," Mrs Mensa said.

She said those who did not apply for the special voting opportunity would be entitled to vote on Saturday.

She assured the public that the EC had put in place all necessary arrangements to ensure a credible and transparent election.

"We have worked tirelessly over the last two years to ensure that our electoral process is robust and transparent," she said.