The Electoral Commission (EC) has said that next week it will reconsider its decision to suspend the printing of ballots for the 2024 presidential election.
The directive came after the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) flagbearer, Madam Akua Donkor, passed away on October 28, 2024.
According to Article 50(4) of the 1992 Constitution, the Commission gave the GFP ten days to find a replacement flagbearer.
Dr. Bossman Asare, the Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services at the EC, assured reporters during a press conference following a tour of three ballot printing facilities in Accra that the Commission will re-examine the issue the following week.
“As you are aware, the printing of parliamentary ballots is ongoing. We have put the presidential ballot papers on hold. It is likely that by next week, the Commission will revisit that particular issue,” he said.
The three printing facilities that were visited were Acts Commercials Limited in Darkuman, which produces ballots for the Upper East, Upper West, and Western North; Innolink in the North Industrial Area, which produces ballots for the Greater Accra and North East regions; and Buck Press in Ofankor, which prints ballot papers for the Ashanti, Savannah, Oti, and Central regions.
In order to increase openness and foster public confidence in the voting process, the tour’s objective was to provide journalists with personal knowledge of the printing process.
Dr. Asare and Benjamin Bano-Bioh, the EC’s Director of Electoral Services, guided the trip.
The ballot printing procedure has been “transparent,” Dr. Asare underlined.
Claims that the Commission produced more ballots than were required for the 2024 election were rejected by him, who described them as a “complete lie.”
“What the EC wants you to know is that nothing is done without the knowledge, even the inputs of political parties, and you can see clearly here that not only the main political parties are represented here.
“We even have Madam Akua Donkor who is no longer going to be a candidate, the agent is here, the independent candidates also have their agents here as well as the other minor political parties.
“So, if you hear anyone saying that the Electoral Commission has printed more than necessary ballots, that’s a complete lie, because the parties are aware, they know the ballot statistics for each region, for each constituency,” he said.
Mr Bano-Bioh said the Commission was one of the few election management institutions in the sub-region that printed its ballot papers locally, reflecting the robustness of its operations.
He stated that the EC was dedicated to a free, fair, and transparent electoral process and that it had nothing to conceal.
“We are here to let you know that printing ballots is not done in secrecy. We open up to the public for you to know that we are doing it together with the political party agents.
“At every level, there are agents, and they observe to ensure that the right thing is done. They take copies of the serial range of numbers; they take copies of quantities being printed for each constituency and we give them all these details at the end.
“So, printing ballots, they are with us, and they make sure that whatever we have packaged and is ready to be sent to our regions and our constituencies, apart from the Electoral Commission’s seals, they also add their seals and take records of that,” he stated.
In order to meet the deadline, Buck Press’s Executive Director, Dr. Francis Nyanin, stated that the company was working nonstop.
Source: myjoyonline.com