Jean Mensa
The Electoral Commission (EC) has dismissed claims of ballot overprinting leveled against it by the opposition NDC.
At an emergency press conference on Sunday, November 1, 2020, NDC alleged that the EC was attempting to rig the December 7, 2020 elections through the printing of ballot papers.
NDC’s National Elections Coordinator, Prof Joshua Alabi, who addressed the media, alleged that at one of the seven selected ballot papers printing Centres in Accra, the Assembly Press Limited, some 150,000 excess ballots have been printed.
EC Response
But in a statement dated November 3, 2020, the EC says “This (allegation) is untrue and we entreat the Public to disregard this falsehood.”
It said “For the information of the General Public; • It has been a standard practice for the Commission to print ballot papers in excess of five percent (5%) to cater for instances such as spoilt ballots. This has been the practice since 1992 and the present Commission has not changed this policy. In line with this policy, all Printing Houses have been directed to print the 2020 ballot papers in excess of 5% for all thirty eight thousand, six hundred and thirty (38,630) Polling Stations across the country.”
It said “It is important to note that since 1992, ballot papers for both the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections are printed in booklets of 10, 25, 50 and 100 for all Polling Stations. As such a Polling Station that has for example ninety (90) voters will be provided with a ballot booklet that contains hundred (100) ballots or two (2) booklets of fifty (50) ballots each as a special booklet cannot be printed for that exact number of Voters i.e. ninety (90) Voters.”
Below is the full statement
PRESS RELEASE
3RD NOVEMBER, 2020
ELECTORAL COMMISSION REFUTES ALLEGATIONS OF “OVERPRINTING”OF BALLOT PAPERS BY THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS (NDC)
The attention of the Electoral Commission has been drawn to misleading statements made by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) regarding the printing of ballot papers currently underway in some printing houses.
The NDC alleges that the Commission has secretly increased the number of ballot papers being printed by the Assembly Press Limited, one of the printing houses selected to print the 2020 ballots. This is untrue and we entreat the Public to disregard this falsehood.
For the information of the General Public;
• It has been a standard practice for the Commission to print ballot papers in excess of five percent (5%) to cater for instances such as spoilt ballots. This has been the practice since 1992 and the present Commission has not changed this policy. In line with this policy, all Printing Houses have been directed to print the 2020 ballot papers in excess of 5% for all thirty eight thousand, six hundred and thirty (38,630) Polling Stations across the country.
• It is important to note that since 1992, ballot papers for both the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections are printed in booklets of 10, 25, 50 and 100 for all Polling Stations. As such a Polling Station that has for example ninety (90) voters will be provided with a ballot booklet that contains hundred (100) ballots or two (2) booklets of fifty (50) ballots each as a special booklet cannot be printed for that exact number of Voters i.e. ninety (90) Voters.
In the scenario above a booklet cannot be printed for ninety voters. A booklet of hundred (100) ballots will be provided. After adding a contingency of five percent (5%) to the ninety (90) voters, the number of ballots would increase to some ninety five (95) ballots. However since that Polling Station can only be provided with a booklet that contains hundred (100) ballots, there will be an excess of five (5) ballot papers. This is the situation that pertains in several Polling Stations. This cannot be avoided because it is be impossible to print separate booklets for each Polling Station based on the number of registered voters at that particular Polling Station.
This has always been the practice and the NDC is well aware of this. For the information of the General Public, all Political Parties have accredited Agents in all the Printing Houses who monitor and keep a 24-hour watch of the printing process. The transparency and openness of the process makes it impossible for any Printing House to manipulate and compromise the process as all printing is done in the full glare of the Agents of the Political Parties.
ACCUSATION OF NOT PROVIDING POLITICAL PARTIES WITH SERIAL NUMBERS
On the allegation of the Electoral Commission not providing the Political Parties with the serial numbers of the ballot papers, the Electoral Commission states as follows;
• The Commission has never provided the Political Parties with serial numbers of ballot papers. The Commission cannot generate the serial numbers of all seventeen million (17m) plus ballot papers.
• As has been the practice, serial numbers are generated by the Printing Houses and are provided to both the Commission and Political Parties after each batch of printing is completed.
The standard practice has been as follows;
• After the printing for each Polling Station’s ballots are completed, the ballots are bagged based on the serial numbers. The serial numbers are then provided to the Commission and Political Parties to enable a tracking and monitoring of the distribution of the ballots.
The packaged/bagged ballots are sealed by both the Electoral Commission and Political Parties. Indeed each Political Party fixes their party seals on the packaged ballot papers. The Political Parties take a record of all seal numbers of each packaged ballot. The packing of the ballots is undertaken in the presence of all the Agents of the Political Parties.
On the Election Day, the Political Parties certify all serial numbers on each packaged ballot before the ballots are opened. The serial numbers are also recorded on the Statement of Poll before Voting commences.
AGITATION REGARDING THE USE OF ASSEMBLY PRESS FOR THE 2020 BALLOT PRINTING
For the information of the General Public, the Printing Houses listed below have been appointed to print the Election 2020 Ballot Papers.
The table provides information on the year they commenced work with the Electoral Commission.
PRINTING HOUSE
YEAR
• Buck Press Limited
1992
• Assembly Press (Ghana Publishing Campany)
1992
• Acts Commercial Limited
2000
• Fonstat Limited
2000
• Yasarko Limited
2000
• Innolink
2004
• Checkpoint Limited
2004
It is well-known that the Assembly Press is a State institution which at any point in time is headed by Appointees of an incumbent Government. It is also a well-known fact that the Assembly Press headed by Appointees of the NDC printed the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2012 and 2016 ballot papers.
In spite of who heads the Assembly Press, the effective monitoring and participation by the Political Parties and Security Agencies in the Commission’s printing processes makes it impossible for any Printing House be it State owned or Private to manipulate and compromise the printing process.
The Electoral Commission finds it difficult to understand why the NDC would seek to cause fear and apprehension around a transparent and open process such as the printing of ballots. This is unacceptable.
The Commission assures the citizenry that each ballot paper will be accounted for. Not one ballot paper will be included in a package that has not been accounted for. This will not happen. Our processes are open, transparent and robust and will remain so.
We entreat the General Public to disregard the attempts by the NDC to cause fear and panic and heighten tension in the lead up to the December 2020 Elections.
May God bless our homeland Ghana and Make our Nation Great and Strong.
LET PEACE REIGN!
By Melvin Tarlue