Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama says the party will stand firm against any attempt to manipulate the upcoming elections through ballot printing irregularities.
The NDC flagbearer accuses the Electoral Commission (EC) of printing extra ballots during the 2020 election, alleging that the surplus ballot papers were distributed to agents of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The EC has begun printing ballot papers for the upcoming polls and has vehemently denied producing more ballots than required.
But Mr. Mahama insists the processes of the electoral management body cannot be trusted.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Sagnarigu, John Dramani Mahama questioned the neutrality of key electoral stakeholders and urged party agents and election observers to be on high alert.
“This election, we are going to make sure that it is transparent and fair. In the past, we have always trusted that everybody who is a stakeholder in the election will behave in a neutral and non-partisan manner. But it doesn’t always work. In 2020, when we went to supervise the printing of the ballot papers after we had finished, we packed them, signed them, and our agents left the printing press. After, they started printing ballots, and some of these papers found their way into the hands of the NPP.
“On election day, we caught NPP agents with ballot papers in their hands. We reported them to the police, but nothing happened. So, for these elections, we are not taking any chances. Just yesterday, one of our election supervisors went to one of the printing houses, and an NPP person came there and wanted to assault him.
“We know that when they finish printing the rest of the papers, instead of shredding them in front of the agents, they keep them and hand them over to the NPP. Nobody is going to get hold of any extra ballot paper to go and dump them in the ballot boxes. This time, we are all going to be very vigilant,” he declared.
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