Some of the aspirants
Six aspirants seeking to lead the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) into the 2020 general elections have questioned the integrity of the company tasked to print the ballot papers for the upcoming presidential primary.
They also raised concerns about the credibility of the party’s register for the presidential primary, saying it does not contain photographs, Voter ID card numbers or party membership card numbers.
The aspirants- Alban S.K Bagbin, Nurideen Ali, Sylvester Mensah, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Goosie Tanoh and Prof Joshua Alabi- in a statement copied to the party’s General Secretary Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, Chairman for National Council of Elders, ex-President Jerry John Rawlings and Samuel Ofusu-Ampofo, National Chairman of the NDC, argued that several contestants and observers saw significant irregularities on the ballot papers printed by the same company for the party’s NEC elections in November, 2018.
“We don’t want to suffer the same fate. we are also deeply concerned about the apparent decision to award the contract for printing of the ballots to the same company that printed ballots for the November NEC elections,” the gang of six fired.
“As you are no doubt aware, several contestants and observers of those elections have observed significant irregularities with the ballot papers, among others.”
“These include incorrect rendering of aspirants’ names, mismatching of pictures and names and presence of duplicate ballot papers (i.e. with the same supposedly “unique” serial number). All of these irregularities have been cited in a discourse that calls the legitimacy of the outcome of some of the NEC elections into question.”
They insisted that the choice of the said private company “would violate the spirit and indeed the letter of the ‘free and fair’ commitment set out in the Settlement Agreement.”
They proposed that the contract for the printing of the ballot papers should be awarded to Assembly Press, a state-owned printing press or others accredited by the Electoral Commission (EC).
The aspirants also revealed that the Voters’ Register was full of “considerable inconsistency.”
The aspirants said the Voters’ register given to them consisted of a list of names without photographs, Voter ID card numbers or even party membership card numbers.
“Our concern obviously is that this approach creates opportunities for voter impersonation and unnecessary confusion on polling day,” they added.
They stressed that the use of a voters’ roll with pictures has been standard electoral practice in Ghana since 2000 which enables polling officers to verify prospective voters’ identities at the polling station and substantially reduce the risk of impersonation.
They were of the firm belief that the party would not agree to participate in a national election using a voters’ roll that does not provide pictures or ID numbers.
“It’s our view that the provision of an EC standard roll falls squarely within the requirements for “free and fair” as provided for in the Judicial Settlement agreed last Thursday in Ali v NDC,” the statement said.
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio