Election 2020: Position on ballot paper shouldn’t matter – Citizen Kofi

The Electoral Commission of Ghana on October 20, 2020, held a balloting session for political parties to pick positions their candidates will occupy on the election ballot paper.

After the event, it emerged that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had picked the first and second slots, respectively.

Thereof, parties involved began to coin religious connotations to their positions on the ballot paper, to at least give their supporters a firm assurance of victory.

But in the expert opinion of Ghanaian business magnate, Dr Kofi Amoah popularly known as Citizen Kofi, these conversations matter less in reality when it comes to electoral politics in the country.

According to him, issues around positions of political candidates on the ballot paper become topical due to the high illiteracy rate among Ghanaian electorates.

Speaking in an exclusive interview on GhanaWeb’s Election Desk he recounted the elections which featured former president John Agyekum Kufuor and the buzz which surrounded his position on the ballot paper.

He remarked, “I remember Kufuor’s time ‘asieho’ (down there)…it shouldn’t (matter) but I think in our case sometimes these things are spoken about because of the depth of illiteracy of a person going into the booth, are they going to be able to recognize exactly who they should vote for.”

Citizen Kofi further recounted that in some years back, debates about whether party symbols should be introduced on the ballot paper to help illiterate electorates identify their candidates emerged but not much was heard of it, thereafter.

For the NDC, the number 2 slot on the ballot paper signifies the second coming of John Dramani Mahama tantamount to biblical representation of the Christ.

The NPP, on the other hand, translate their number 1 position as a one-touch victory in the yet to be organized polls.