Ghana’s Electoral Commission has described as false and unfounded, claims by the New Patriotic Party that the Commission has printed pink sheets without serial numbers embossed on them.
The NPP on Tuesday alleged that the company contracted to print election related materials, Aero Vote, began printing pink sheets, which it claimed were not embossed with serial numbers as required by law.
Executives of the party quoted ‘officials’ of the company as having said the decision not to emboss serial numbers on the pink sheets were based on a directive from the EC.
However, the EC Tuesday night issued a statement to deny the claims by the NPP, noting that the printing of the Statement of Poll and Declaration of Results Form, known as pink sheets, has not yet started.
The statement, which was signed by the Head of Communications at the EC, Kofi Dzakpasu, said printing of the pink sheets would start on Thursday, 17 November 2016.
The EC explained that pink sheets for this year’s elections would be personalised to make them polling station specific, and have embossed on each sheet the name of the polling station, its code and serial numbers.
“It is therefore in our view, very regrettable for a political party to engage in pre-emptive allegations and suspicions with the intention to unnecessarily heighten public tensions ahead of the elections,” the statement said.
The attention of the Electoral Commission has been drawn to a press statement issued on 15th November, 2016 by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) alleging that serial numbers have been omitted on the printing of the Statement of Poll and the Declaration of Results Form popularly known as “Pink Sheets”.
The statement also alleges that 3,000 extra copies of the said forms are without serial numbers, polling station name and polling station code.
We would like to place the facts below on record:
The Commission in its continuous quest of ensuring the credibility and transparency in the upcoming General Elections has decided to personalise the Statement of Poll and the Declaration of Results Forms. For the first time, the said Forms would be polling station specific and would therefore, not require the exercise of discretion during distribution by Election Officials. Every Form would have embossed on it, the polling station name, the polling station code AND serial numbers.
In respect of this personalization, and in anticipation of possible mistakes and cancellations by Presiding Officers on these forms, provision has been made for the printing of 3000 extra copies of the Forms to cater for such unplanned incidents. These 3000 extra copies have been designed with a different colour, with the words “REPLACEMENT” embossed on them for ease of differentiation. The replacement forms cannot therefore be confused in anyway with the personalized polling station specific forms.
It is false that Aero Vote was awarded a contract worth US$8.95 million for the printing of the Statement of Polls and Declaration of Results Forms. The contract awarded to Aero Vote by the Commission is way below US$2 million in value (GHS7.2 million).
We have been informed that no management staff of Aero Vote told officials of the NPP ‘that they have been told not to emboss serial numbers on the pink sheets”. This is an untrue statement. The contract terms and security features on the Pink Sheets as agreed between the Electoral Commission and Aero Vote are clear to the contractual parties. Further, the NPP has no privity of contract with Aero Vote, and therefore has no legal basis for engaging directly with the company (which is a vendor of the EC), on their contractual obligations to the EC. Such enquiries should be made directly to the EC and not to a vendor. Vendors must be allowed the peace of mind and space to perform their contractual obligations to the people of Ghana through the EC. Vendors cannot and should not be reporting to political parties.
The NPP says in its Press Release, that “today, Aero Vote ….started the printing of the said forms”. Again, this claim is false. Printing of the Forms will start on Thursday, 17 November, 2016.
For the first time in our electoral history, these forms will be printed in Ghana with enhanced security features that significantly boost the integrity of results collation in our elections.
Again, for the first time, political parties have been invited by the Commission to send their representatives to the premises of the company during the printing of the Statement of Poll and Declaration of Results forms. Police personnel would also be deployed to the premises during the printing process.
In the light of the foregoing, it is therefore in our view, very regrettable for a political party to engage in pre-emptive allegations and suspicions with the intention to unnecessarily heighten public tensions ahead of the elections.
The New Patriotic Party could have easily verified the facts surrounding this issue with the Commission. Choosing to rush to the media with unfounded claims of non-existent plans to manipulate election results is not helpful to anyone.
We again take the opportunity to urge political parties to desist from making unsubstantiated allegations about the electoral process and work with the Commission to deliver credible and transparent elections to the people of Ghana.
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