The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said that the approach being adopted by the Electoral Commission’s officials in dealing with issues concerning the upcoming elections is bringing the name of the electoral management body into disrepute.
The party’s Deputy General Secretary, Peter Boamah Otokunor, suggested at a meeting with the electoral management body that some of the printing houses have printed extra ballot sheets.
The EC is required to print an extra five percent of the ballot sheets for each polling station to deal with possible cases of spoilt ballots but according to the NDC, the EC is printing ballot papers in excess of the agreed figures.
These claims have led to assertions by the opposition party that the EC is planning to rig the elections in favour of the current administration.
However, the EC has refuted these allegations by the NDC that it is attempting to rig the upcoming elections by overprinting ballot papers.
In a statement dated November 3, 2020, the EC described the allegations as “misleading”.
The EC stated that it had directed all printing houses to print the 2020 ballots in excess of five percent for all 38,630 polling stations across the country since that has been the standard practice of the Commission since 1992.
Speaking to Citi News, Peter Boamah Otokunor stated that “yesterday, they admitted, and they assured us that they were going to give us the ballot statistics today. So, for the EC to issue a statement after our meeting where the printers have admitted that they printed extra ballots that we, the NDC are lying, is most unfortunate and bizarre and I think that EC should be careful with the way they are going about things.”
Mr. Otokunor stated that the recent way the EC has been handling issues concerning the elections is dragging their name in the mud.
He added that they seem to have pitted themselves against the National Democratic Congress.
“They are bringing the name of the EC into disrepute. This is an institution that has gained respect over a period in the way they conduct their affairs so if this is changing, and it is becoming more of lies and deception, and they are pitting themselves against the NDC as their main opponent and it is becoming worrisome.”