The Electoral Commission has dismissed accusations by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that it has printed a ‘wrong logo’ for the party on the parliamentary ballot sheets for the 2016 elections.
The Ashanti regional branch of the NPP first raised the concern in an interview with 3news.com indicating that whereas all the parties on the ballot paper had their parliamentary candidates, party logo and party acronyms boldly printed, the NPP column was printed only with the logo and the candidate without the acronym NPP.
Ashanti regional chair of the NPP, Antwi Boasiako also know as Chairman Wontumi said this act by the EC would confuse voters who look out only for the acronym before voting.
The EC in a statement signed by its head of communications, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu dismissed the accusation saying that agents of the NPP have actively participated in the entire printing process and never raised any concerns about the logo.
Below is the EC’s full statement about the logo saga.
The Commission’s attention has been drawn to reports in sections of the media suggesting that the Commission had printed a ‘wrong logo’ for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the Parliamentary ballot sheets. We would like to place on the records that the claim is entirely inaccurate. Below are the facts:
All Political Parties participating in this year’s elections worked closely with the Commission’s Directorate of Electoral Services to agree on the acceptable logo for their parties to be printed on the Notice of Polls and the ballots sheets.
For the Parliamentary Notice of Polls and Ballot Sheets, the New Patriotic Party specifically indicated their satisfaction with the logo as processed for printing.
During the printing process, not only did the party have its representatives at the printing houses at all material times, high ranking officers of the party visited the printing houses regularly to monitor the process. At no point did they raise any objections about the NPP’s logo as it was being printed.
For the avoidance of doubt, we have added the NPP’s official logo as it appears on the party’s letterheads. It is clear from the pictures that the party uses these two versions of their logo interchangeably. Both do not include the party’s acronym as now being claimed
We would like to further place on the record that it is only for the Presidential Ballot that the NPP has specifically requested that its acronym should be added to the logo, and that has been done.
Therefore, it cannot be accurate that the Commission committed any design or printing errors as being speculated or claimed.
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