Mr. Yaw Larbi, a former student of the Koforidua Polytechnic, has suggested to the Electoral Commission (EC), to present pictures and symbols of candidates contesting the forthcoming District Assembly Elections on the ballot papers in a horizontal form instead of the vertical presentation used in the 2000 election.
He said such a presentation would help frustrate the attempts being made by some of the candidates to associate themselves with the slogans of some of the major political parties that participated in the 2000 elections.
Mr. Larbi who made the suggestion in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Koforidua on Friday said when he visited some of the centres the candidates were to fill their nomination papers, he realised that some of them were unduly delaying the process apparently to enable their symbols and pictures to appear at the bottom of the ballot papers if the vertical format of presentation was to be used.
Mr. Larbi said when he enquired about the reasons behind the delays, he found out that the delay was to enable those candidates who wanted to affiliate with the New Patriotic Party and to use the "Asieho " slogan during their campaign for the 2000 election, while those whose names or symbols would be published on top of the ballot papers could use the National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2000 campaign slogan of "esoroho."
He explained that such developments, if unchecked would contravene the Local Government Act, which stipulates that people seeking elections into the District Assembly should do so on their individual merit and not to be affiliated with any political party.
