The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has requested an emergency meeting of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee over what it describes as an illegality; the printing of pink sheets without serial numbers.
The NPP said it identified the anomaly when it visited Aero Vote, the company contracted to print the pink sheets for this year’s elections.
The party in a statement copied to citifmonline.com said it was surprised the company said it had been directed to print the sheets without the serial numbers.
“The Electoral Reforms Committee Report recommended that Serial Numbers must be embossed and be unique to each polling station. This has been stated in the law governing the 2016 general elections, CI 94,” it said.
“Since then, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission has said publicly that Pink Sheets will have serial numbers. We are, therefore, surprised to be told at the final hour of printing by those contracted to print that they have been instructed by the same Commission not to bother putting serial numbers on the Pink Sheets,” it added.
According to the party, the development “is not acceptable” arguing that it affected the integrity of the base document for the declaration of results.
On why the party decided to make public its findings immediately, the party said, “We want to throw light on this matter of omitting serial numbers on the Pink Sheets quickly so that the Commission can take immediate steps to correct this serious anomaly for the forms being printed to conform to the law, CI 94.”
“Time is not on our side. The election is three weeks away. We do not need another court case. Let us do what is right now to protect the national quest for credible and peaceful elections,” it noted.
The Director of Elections of the NPP, Martin Agyei Mensah Korsah an interview on Eyewitness News said, the development was not consistent with new recommendations consented to by the various political parties intended to improve the country’s electoral system.
He expressed fear that if the anomaly is not checked, the electoral system will be opened to manipulation and rigging.
“If you relax the security features on those pink sheets, considering that several of them are not going to have polling station and name, and on top of it there is a general lack of serial numbers, then anybody can do anything.”
The New Patriotic Party on Monday, November 14 protested what it described as an error on the parliamentary ballots for the Ashanti region.
According to the party, the ballot did not have the NPP’s initials printed on it, as it had been done for other parties.
Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NPP, Sam Payne, told Citi News, “the notice of polls that the EC printed, we noticed some discrepancies. On the notice of poll, you’ll have the emblem of the New Patriotic Party there, with the initials of NPP boldly written as its done to the other political parties.”
A counter statement issued by the Electoral Commission debunked the claims saying the party’s logo on the ballot were exactly what it had presented to the Commission. Mr Eric Dzakpasu, the Head of Communications of the EC who signed the statement said, its records show the NPP did not have initials as part of its official logo.
“it cannot be accurate that the Commission committed any design or printing errors as being speculated or claimed.”
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
