Coalition of District Election Observers expressed disappointment in the Electoral Commission (EC) for failing to ensure the smooth and efficient conduct of the District Level elections.
CODEO explained that, there were technical difficulties with the ballot machines and problems with the printing of ballot papers particularly in the Ashanti and Eastern region which led to the postponement of the elections.
According to the Electoral Commission, affected voters would be given the chance to cast their vote on the 21st of December 2023.
The Deputy General Secretary of the New Democratic Congress Party (NDC), Mustapha Gbande accused the Electoral Commission of gross incompetence in its handling of the District Level elections.
“Now if you have contracted vendors 12 hours into an exercise, delivery has not been made, yet you have assured the whole country you are ready. It means you are not competent.”
National Coordinator of CODEO Albert Arhin criticized the Electoral Commission for failing to perform adequate due diligence, which led to issues with the accuracy of names on the ballot papers.
According to him, the printing of the ballot papers should have been completed well before the election to allow for quality checks and corrections.
“For example, if it’s Kofi Arhin, it’s Evans Mensah who is under the picture. So you know, these are some of the mistakes that tell you that, the printing should have started way back to allow for mistakes that have been made to be corrected.”
In response to the issues that arose during the election, the EC hoped for a high voter turnout in the affected areas and assured that the mistakes that led to the postponement of the elections would not be repeated.
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