Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah (left), Kingsley Kofi Addo, Business Development Manager, Innolink (right)
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called for a probe into how the printing of some ballot papers for the upcoming elections was handled by Innolink Ghana.
The party believes the company may have compromised the security of the election materials in some way after an official of the printing firm had been seen giving a production plate to a yet-to-be-identified person.
Even though management of the company – which was contracted by the Electoral Commission (EC) to print ballot papers for the presidential poll in the Greater Accra and the Volta Regions – has admitted giving out the plate to the person, the party says it was not the ballot papers for the presidential election.
Instead, it claims it was the Statement of Polls (famously known as Pink Sheet) for the elections – a job it says was given to Innolink by Aero Vote, the company contracted by the EC to print the Statement of Polls.
Innolink management’s explanation does not seem to satisfy the curiosity of the NPP, which Director of Elections, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, thinks there is more to it than merely meets the eye and what Ghanaians have been told.
Concerns
In a statement, he insisted, “It still remains a fact that Mr. Martin Anderson (Production Manager of Innolink) handed over the said plate to someone and this has not been denied by the printing house. The manner in which this was done amounts to a security breach.”
Mr Adjei-Mensah Korsah maintained, “This incident has compromised the printing of either one or two of the most sensitive materials for the elections – ballot papers and Pink Sheets” and demanded a full and early investigation into the matter.
According to him, the explanation that the plate was prepared by Innolink for Aero Vote, another security printing firm handling the Statement of Poll and Results Declaration Forms, was what makes the whole thing suspicious.
“This is most worrying because Aero Vote is supposed to be an A1 security printing house, awarded the contract to print arguably the most sensitive document in the entire election process, the Pink Sheets,” he said, while insisting that “If such a firm does not have the capacity to make or fix its own printing plates but to rely on another firm, then we consider this as a fundamental breach which compromises the integrity of the entire work that it is doing.”
Interestingly, Martin revealed, “It is this same Aero Vote that, through a subcontract in 2012, was given the very odd task to print duplicated serial numbers on duplicate Pink Sheets for the 2012 presidential elections” which ended up at the Supreme Court with evidence that Pink Sheets were replaced with new results before collation took place.
The NPP as a party has indicated therefore, that it does not take this matter lightly, believing it should be of grave concern to the Electoral Commission; and is asking for an Inter- Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting.
Justification
According to the NPP, “When political party agents reported at that printing press on 3rd November, 2016 for the printing to begin, the rule spelt out to them was that there was to be no other printing or activity during the period apart from the printing of parliamentary and presidential ballot papers.”
The party stressed, “At no point were the agents present at the printing house made aware of a printing plate leaving Innolink. It was all being done on the blind side of the agents. It took the extra vigilance of our agents to detect that a plate had been handed out to an unknown person, asking rhetorically, were the BNI agents and police representatives aware of this?”
NPP has since served notice, “We will not sit unconcerned for the kind of irregularities that took place in 2012 to be repeated. The peace and credibility of our democracy are very important to us.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu