Reducing spoiled ballots is a primary focus of development for political parties in securing victory for the upcoming elections. It is believed to have a long-lasting effect on the fifty plus one policy of electing a president of the republic.
There are many factors that have been underestimated over a long period and COYLIB aims to raise awareness within the political parties and bring a closer look to the issues that affect electorates in casting a valid vote.
Recently, commentaries from media practitioners and other civil groups have made pronouncement relating to the spoiled votes which in one way or the other raised an eye brows of EC’s preparedness towards election 2016 .These recent reports have alluded to the challenges that lie ahead in December elections and need to find solutions within the political domain.
We present evidence of a significance relationship between public education levels and electorate spoiled specific factors. In addition we observe that voting methods exert influence on spoiled ballot papers or votes ,and the results reveal that new registrants, new polling agents, lack of clear instruction, lack of outreach education are important factors to note in reducing the spoiled ballots.
Research was conducted across electoral constituencies in two stages: both qualitative and quantitative. The quantitative data were collected from the recent elections of the both NPP and NDC flagbearership primaries in 2014 and 2015 respectively, whilst the qualitative were sample phone views from electorates across the political divide.
The sample data set were strongly balanced indicating that the polling stations have the same number of observations across time and space.
Qualitative reports suggested strongly that the party electorates were not given clear instruction on what to do with the ballot paper. Out of the number of electorates contacted across the country, none was given a formal training with a clear instruction from the party officers.
Furthermore, half of the delegates across the country were unaware of new registrants and new polling agents in their respective constituencies.
The quantitative research showed a significant number of rejected votes across the country. Volta region recorded higher values above 50 spoiled ballots, Upper west and Northern region recorded between 25-50, whilst the rest of the country falls below 25 spoilage ballots for NPP. The mean shows an average of 2.133, which was quiet higher compared to 2010.
The NDC voting pattern of YES or NO resulted in a significant number of rejected votes of around 25,771 nationwide out of the total valid vote cast of 1,260,954.
The data could be identified as a non-probability sampling since the data points were not picked randomly. The findings achieved in the research, will not be possible to generalise on other voting patterns in other jurisdiction due to the number of sample used.
For a political party to defeat the policy of fifty plus one, it was imperative that members and party officers pay attention to every vote.
COYLIB DESIGN & TAKE
Until recently, however, many people including the institution mandated; Electoral Commission and National Commission for Civic Education (EC&NCCE) have paid relatively little direct attention to the causes and consequences of spoiled ballots. Political parties in the country hold significant amounts of electorates within their domain to translate preference votes into seats.
Most popular explanation about spoiled ballots can be viewed in light of the fact that every single vote counts for electing a candidate.
We did emphasize in one of our last article published last year on graphic online that the NCCE only returns to the airwaves during polling days; this time they were interested in setting up debates amongst presidential candidates instead of their core mandates.
The NCCE is well placed with powers devoted to its office to execute and sustain awareness among Ghanaians but the commission is making no effort to help majority of the populace in terms of outreach and activities regarding the election.
COYLIB believes strongly that the Commission is to blame for such number of continuous spoiled ballots in elections due to lack of willingness to educate and sensitize the public.
The EC’s actions over the short period of time has created uncertainty amongst Ghanaians as the pattern gets more worrying for international observers.
A second round off can easily be avoided if the Electoral Commission(EC) pay attention to the spoiled ballots issues and desist from legal hurdles in court which does not inure to the benefits of the electorates.
In the spirit of fifty plus one policy, COYLIB are calling on the leadership of NCCE and EC as matter of urgency to bring a sense of refreshness by addressing the spoiled ballots problems and offering collective and effective channels in minimising it for the December polls.
COALITION OF YOUNG LIBERALS (COYLIB)
SIGNED:
Samuel O Donkor (Convener of the COYLIB — +44 07984401983)
Nana Ansah Oborfour (Leading Member, 07411461007)
Ofori Atta (Leading member, 0547393657)
Issah Ayumah (Leading Member, 07930963560)
Justice Appiah Antwi (Leading Member, 0242360411
George Adjei (Leading member, 0249582964)
Asafo Adjei (Leading member, 0249655353)
(GHANA, UK, USA, BELGIUM, SWEDEN, CHINA, GERMANY)
(Omissions, errors, and typos are COYLIB mistakes;Report available via COYLIB contacts.)
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