Electoral Commission burns surplus ballot papers over errors

The Electoral Commission of Ghana has initiated a process to destroy ballot papers with errors for the Ahafo and Volta Regions.

These ballot papers, which are being burned, contain errors in the serial numbers printed for both the parliamentary and presidential elections.

According to videos available to GhanaWeb on Thursday, November 21, 2024, the exercise is being supervised by EC officials, party agents, and under the watch of several security agencies, including the National Intelligence Bureau, the National Security, and the Ghana Police Service.

Currently, the burning of the excess ballot papers is ongoing at the Adepa Waste Management Center at Nsawam Adoagyiri.

The EC on Sunday, November 16, 2024, destroyed more ballot papers over serialisation errors.

An EC official present during Thursday's destruction explained that the burning that took place involved the incineration of waste papers, overs, and the destruction of plates at the South Industrial area.

According to him, this is entirely different from the ongoing destruction exercise on Thursday.

“We burnt the waste papers, overs and the destroyed plates at the premises of the company at the industrial area. That is totally different from this and that is a routine thing that we do when we finish the printing process.

“The plate used for the ballot printing has to be destroyed as the final item under destruction. This particular one has a peculiar case because the EC rejected these ballots that were printed by the printing house based on the defects indicated in the press release,” he said.

The Electoral Commission of Ghana announced that it is taking measures to correct some anomalies detected in the printing of presidential and parliamentary ballot papers for the Volta and Ahafo Regions.

Addressing an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Friday, November 15, 2024, Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, said the commission, among other measures, has ordered a reprint of the ballot papers.

“The Commission has seriously taken action to cure the defect and has deployed teams to the printing house to correct the anomaly. Gaps still exist, and the commission has taken the decision to recall the ballot papers for the Ahafo and Volta Regions. The commission has decided that the ballots for the two regions will now be printed by Bulk and Acts Commercials, respectively,” he stated.

Watch videos of the burning process below:





MAG/AE

Watch the mixed reactions from drivers and hawkers using the Flower Pot Interchange below: