EC disposes of defective ballot papers
The Electoral Commission (EC) last Thursday disposed of defective ballot papers from the Ahafo and Volta regions due to serialisation errors.
The defective ballots were incinerated at the Adipa Waste Management Centre, located near Nsawam in the Eastern Region, as part of efforts to ensure their secure disposal and uphold electoral integrity.
The destruction process was conducted under strict supervision, with representatives from political parties, officers from the Ghana Police Service, the National Investigations Bureau, National Security, and members of the media present to ensure transparency and accountability.
Addressing journalists during the exercise Deputy Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Mr Asante Kissi, revealed that a total of 27,414 presidential and parliamentary ballots from the Volta Region, along with 9,584 from the Ahafo Region, were incinerated as part of a ballot disposal exercise.
He stated that the destruction of the ballot papers was to “protect the integrity of the ballot papers.”
Mr Kissi called on the media to prioritise accurate reporting and refrain from disseminating misinformation.
A New Patriotic Party representative, Mr George Nkrumah, who was also present at the destruction site expressed the party’s approval of the destruction of the affected ballots.
He also commended the EC for conducting the exercise in a transparent manner.
However an agent for the National Democratic Congress NDC), Mr Abdul Malik Cheno, said the situation that resulted in the destruction of the ballots was “avoidable” and expressed fear that timeliness for the completion and distribution of the ballots to the two regions could be delayed.
At the end of the exercise, all stakeholders at the site signed a Disposal Certificate to validate and officially record the process.
The EC had last week announced at an Inter-party Advisory Committee meeting in Accra that the ballot papers for the two regions would be reprinted after an audit revealed serialisation errors.
The Commission clarified that Fonstat, the printing house responsible for the ballots, faced issues with its automated serialisation system and resorted to a manual process.
Upon further review, the EC determined that the manual method was not reliable enough to ensure accurate serialisation.
On November 16, 2024, the EC and political parties also shredded and burned the excess ballots and printing plates used for the affected regions.
FROM RAISSA SAMBOU, NSAWAM
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