EC aims to cut spoilt ballots to 1%

The Electoral Commission (EC) has said it hopes to reduce the number of rejected votes in the 2016 election significantly.

The Commission said the just ended by-election at Amenfi West is a litmus test towards achieving that feat in the 2016 general elections.

The EC recorded two per cent rejected ballots in the Amenfi by-election but Deputy Commissioner, Amadu Sulley, said his office will work towards getting less than one per cent rejected ballots in the 2016 elections.

“We praying that in the general elections, we will get around one per cent rejected papers because you know, even internationally, two per cent is not bad, but we will want to go below the two per cent,” he told Class FM’s Parker Wilson.

He added the EC is optimistic of reducing the number of rejected ballots in 2016” since the Commission has picked “very good practices in both Talensi and here [Amenfi West].”

He said there will be two Biometric Verification Devices (BVD) per centre and the EC will make sure that the BVDs will not reject too many voters.

“We are going to apply, as I said, the good things that we have here and in Talensi, then we combine them”.

Mr Sulley further stated that the EC anticipates certain challenges, which “we may not be able to pre-empt, but I want to assure you that [with] majority of them, we are gradually tackling them, so, in 2016, we are going to get it smooth. We are very positive,” he added.