Ballot papers with duplicate serial numbers detected in Koforidua

Political parties and Electoral Commission officials in Koforidua have chanced upon some ballot papers with duplicate serial numbers while sorting out electoral materials.

These errors, according to them, were detected in both presidential and parliamentary ballot papers for Akuapem South Constituency in the Eastern Region on Sunday, November 22, 2020.

“For the ballot papers in the presidential booklets, we noticed that instead of 142 pieces of the booklets, we had 141 booklets which means there is a shortage by one. On the other hand, 50 of the booklets had duplicate serial numbers on the ballot papers. With the Parliamentary, there was a shortage of one booklet with two duplicate booklets with same serial numbers on ballot papers,” Prince Etornam the Akuapem South Constituency Secretary of the NDC told Starr News.

Reacting to the issue, Director of elections for the NDC in Eastern Region Baba Jamal Konney said the party will ensure that the duplicate ballot papers are kept in Police custody to avoid been tempered with.

“We are done with sorting, all the Constituency booklets have been kept at the Police armory at the Police Headquarters in Koforidua. Every political party has put its seal on the bags, on November 30th we will come and pick the special voting booklets and conduct the Special Voting then afterward we come for the main booklets and check whether the seals and everything is okay. Including all the errors we detected,” he stated.

The Eastern Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, (NPP) Jeff Konadu on the other hand failed to comment on the development though approached twice.

The sorting exercise was monitored by BNI, Police and Election Observers from the European Union (EU).