Reprint error-riddled ballot papers - Kweku Asare

The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana must admit it erred in printing some ballot papers for parliamentary elections in the Ashanti Region and reprint the affected papers without hesitation, Kweku Asare, a US-based Ghanaian professor, has said.

His comment follows the clarification given by the EC on the omission of the New Patriotic Party’s initials on the parliamentary ballot papers to be used in the Ashanti Region.

The EC, in a statement issued by Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, Head of Communications, denied the existence of errors on the printout, saying: “Attention has been drawn to reports in sections of the media suggesting that the Commission had printed a ‘wrong logo’ for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the parliamentary ballot sheets. We would like to place on the record that the claim is entirely inaccurate.

Below are the facts:

1. All political parties participating in this year’s elections worked closely with the Commission’s Directorate of Electoral Services to agree on the acceptable logo for their parties to be printed on the Notice of Polls and the ballot sheets.

2. For the parliamentary notice of polls and ballot sheets, the New Patriotic Party specifically indicated their satisfaction with the logo as processed for printing.

3. During the printing process, not only did the party have its representatives at the printing houses at all material times, high-ranking officers of the party visited the printing houses regularly to monitor the process. At no point did they raise any objections about the NPP’s logo as it was being printed.

4. For the avoidance of doubt, we have added the NPP’s official logo as it appears on the party’s letterheads. It is clear from the pictures that the party uses these two versions of their logo interchangeably. Both do not include the party’s acronym as now being claimed.

5. We would like to further place on the record that it is only for the presidential ballot that the NPP has specifically requested that its acronym be added to the logo, and that has been done.

6. Therefore, it cannot be accurate that the Commission committed any design or printing errors as being speculated or claimed.”

But in a Facebook post, Prof Asare said: “This time, the EC must quickly admit its error of omission, if indeed there was one, and reprint the Ashanti Region parliamentary ballots. It should be very easy to resolve. The only good reason for NPP to complain is that the EC did not print what the party provided. If the EC printed what the party provided, then the NPP has no case. If the EC did not print what the party provided, then the EC has no case.”