The National Democratic
Congress (NDC) has expressed worry that the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) is
acting without recourse to the political parties as regards the printing of
ballots for the December 7 elections.
According to
the party, the Assembly Press, one of the firms contracted to print the
ballots, is printing additional ones at a different location.
“Just last night, the NDC found
out that the Assembly Press is printing additional ballot papers in another
location on its premises on the blind side of the Agents of the political
parties,” the largest opposition party said at an emergency press conference
addressed by National Campaign Manager Professor Joshua Alabi on Sunday,
November 1.
“The NDC
completely abhors this irregularity, particularly, as the MD of Assembly Press
was an aspirant who contested in the NPP 2020 Parliamentary Primaries in the
Nkawkaw Constituency and the Convener of the Let My Vote Count Alliance
(LMVCA), pro-NPP pressure group.”
The party also
alleged that the EC is going against norm and convention by printing in excess
of the accepted 5 percent.
“What is surprising this time
around is that the EC is rather printing an additional 5 percent of the total
registered voters per Constituency with padding in the total number of ballot
papers to be printed.
“What this
translates into is that more ballot papers are being printed in excess of the 5
percent extra ballot papers required per Polling Station.
“From the Ballot Statistics received from the printing
houses, as coming from the EC, we have analysed the figures from 13 regions and
observed that there is an excess of over 150,000 ballot papers being printed
beyond the extra 5 percent required.”
The party wants immediate answers from the EC.
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