The Electoral Commission (EC) has urged the public to discount any suggestion that it is clandestinely printing ballot papers in excess of agreed numbers.
According to the EC, it is a lie for anyone to suggest, let alone claim that is what is happening.
Dr. Bossman Asare, Deputy Chairperson at the EC on Friday made the denial while on a media tour of printing houses engaged to print ballots for the 2024 general election.
He explained that per the ballot statistics shared with the political parties and candidates, the exact numbers of ballots going to any particular region or constituency are known, as the counting and sealing of such materials are done in the presence of agents of all the parties involved.
“This is the particular number going to this region, this is the particular number going to this constituency, so if you hear anywhere that the Electoral Commission has printed more than the necessary ballots, that’s a complete lie, because the parties are aware, they know the ballot statistics for each region, for each constituency, and in this year’s election what the Commission said is that we are giving each constituency an increase of two percent, and that’s what we are printing.
“So if you hear anywhere that oh the EC has printed excess of 2,000, 3,000 it’s not true. The parties are here and the party agents themselves can testify that indeed the numbers the EC has given to the parties, that’s what we are printing, that’s what the printing houses are printing, and that’s what EC officials are also checking, the parties are also checking.
“And as I indicated, when we finish, all the ballots for each constituency, as far as each region is concerned will be bagged and the parties are going to have their seals on the bags, the EC is also going to have its seals on the bags. So everything is very, very transparent.”
The denial follows a claim by the agents’ supervisor of the National Democratic Congress, Richard Dzakpa, that the printing houses engaged to print for the Ashanti and Eastern regions, being the two strongholds of the ruling New Patriotic Party, as well as the Savannah and North East regions where the two leading presidential candidates- John Mahama and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia – come from, were printing 3,000 extra ballots per constituency, suggesting a sinister motive.
“It’s too much of a coincidence to have their two strongholds, and where the two flagbearers come from, printing in excess of 3,000 per constituency as internal printing house operational losses,” he alleged.