Claim: Social media users have alleged that the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Director of Elections manipulated the party’s ballot position during the presidential election balloting process.
Verdict: False. DUBAWA’s analysis revealed that at the time the NPP knew its ballot position, other candidates sitting close to the NPP had not yet opened their ball-like items containing their positions.
Additionally, the paper in front of Peter Mac Manu, Head of Electoral Services for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s campaign team, was not the official ballot position paper but rather a paper from an earlier balloting that determined the order in which political parties would select their positions.
Furthermore, key political parties, including the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have denied any claims of a ballot position swap.
Full Text
In the lead-up to the general elections, the Electoral Commission (EC) has faced intense scrutiny, with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) raising multiple accusations of alleged irregularities in the voter registration process.
Despite this, on Sep. 20, 2024, political parties participated in the balloting process to determine their positions on the ballot paper for the upcoming elections.
By the end of the process, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) secured the first spot, while the NDC took the eighth.
However, following the balloting, a claim went viral suggesting that the NPP had swapped its ballot position with another candidate.
The claim was supported by a video showing Evans Nimako, the NPP’s Director of Research and Elections, handing a piece of paper to someone seated next to him.
This action led Facebook user Alfred Ogbamey to claim that a ballot swap had occurred, questioning the integrity of the EC by stating, “Why can’t one blindly trust anything organized by the EC without monitoring?”
The claim was further amplified when NDC Online and Gyabeng Samuel posted about it on Facebook, which has received over 100,000 views. This has sparked widespread condemnation in the comments section, with users labeling the EC and the NPP as corrupt.
In response to these allegations, DUBAWA launched an investigation to verify the authenticity of the claim.
Verification
First, DUBAWA sought to understand the procedures involved in the ballot-picking process to assess whether any swapping could have occurred.
Before the balloting by the various political parties, the Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), Benjamin Bano-Bioh, outlined a two-stage process. DUBAWA referenced the live feed by Weozor TV, which captured the entire event as published on YouTube.
According to Benjamin Bano-Bioh, the first stage determined the order in which political parties would select their ballot positions, while the second stage was where they officially picked their positions for the election.
Mr. Bano-Bioh explained, “This is the first stage. You are picking for the order. The second stage is when you will pick your position on the ballot. If you pick ‘Number One’ in the first stage, it means you will be the first to choose in the second stage.
The number you pick in this stage will be your position on the ballot.” This statement can be verified between 45 minutes 13 seconds and 45 minutes 30 seconds of the video.
The process was carried out smoothly, with each party receiving a number that determined the order for the final ballot position selection. In the second stage, the ballot papers were placed in a green polythene bag, and parties chose their positions according to the order established in the first stage. This can be seen from 1 hour 46 minutes onward in the video.
Did the NPP swap its ballot position?
DUBAWA first analyzed the viral video that allegedly showed the NPP swapping its ballot position. To gain a clearer perspective, DUBAWA referred to the full live stream of the event, which was captured by Woezor TV.
According to the footage, the NPP’s Director of Elections, Dr. Evans Nimako, opened the round ball-like item containing the paper with the party’s ballot position at 1 hour 49 minutes 20 seconds into the live stream.
After revealing the position, Dr. Nimako immediately passed the paper to the Head of Electoral Services for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s campaign team Peter Mac Manu, who was seated right beside him.
Upon receiving it, Mac Manu smiled, and Dr. Nimako stood up, jubilantly holding a book celebrating that the NPP had secured the Number 1 spot on the ballot.
This moment matched the exact scenario depicted in the viral video published by Facebook user Alfred Ogbamey, though the angle from behind made it hard to discern the details.
There were additional claims that the NPP swapped positions with Kofi Akpaloo, the flagbearer of the LPG, who was seated next to Peter Mac Manu. However, DUBAWA’s analysis of the video showed that when Dr. Nimako opened the NPP’s ballot item, Kofi Akpaloo had just taken his seat and had not yet opened his ballot item. This evidence confirmed that no swap occurred between the NPP and any other candidate.
Reaction from NDC
It is also important to note that if any such swap had occurred, the NDC would have opposed it and demanded an investigation.
However, in response, the NDC’s Director of Elections, Dr. Omane Boamah, refuted the allegations in a Facebook post on Saturday, September 21.
He acknowledged the party’s issues with the Electoral Commission but emphasized that they would not engage in baseless accusations for political gain.
“There was no swap of ballots between Kofi Akpaloo and the NPP,” he confirmed.
Conclusion
The claim that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) swapped its ballot position during the presidential election balloting process is false. DUBAWA’s investigation revealed that at the time the NPP discovered its position, other candidates, including Kofi Akpaloo of the LPG, had not yet opened their ballot items.
Furthermore, the paper seen in front of Peter Mac Manu, a member of the NPP team, was from an earlier round determining the order of selection, not the final ballot position.
Key political parties, including the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have also denied the allegations of any ballot position swapping.
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