National Chairman of opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to address existing inconsistencies in the 2024 electoral register before proceeding to print ballot papers.
In a passionate engagement, Chairman Asiedu Nketia explained that the register is the bedrock upon which all electoral processes was hinged. He said it was crucial that the EC got the basis right.
This follows Electoral Commission’s announcement to begin ballot printing on October 11, 2024. In the communique signed by its Deputy Chair in charge of Operations, Samuel Nettey, it invited agents of the qualified candidates to attend an orientation ahead of the exercise.
However, Mr. Asiedu Nketia was of the view that the commission had not satisfied the processes preceding ballot printing.
“You are commencing printing of ballot papers. You are going to print ballot papers based on a draft register,” he said during a campaign tour in Ho. So where does it put the remaining reputation of the Electoral Commission? I’ve just drawn the attention of all the CSOs, all the labor organizations, that showed interest in a clean and credible register.”
The veteran noted that with the absence of the code books, ballot printing was going to be fraught with inconsistencies. He questioned how the EC could conclude on the total number of voters when it was yet to revise the register.
“For those who don’t understand this thing, the code books are the books that tell you polling station by polling station, number of voters in each of those polling stations, and that will guide the composition of the ballot statistics and then before you proceed to do printing.
“We do not have the code books as we stand here to guide us as to the number of voters in each polling station for which you will be printing ballot papers. We don’t have the ballot statistics as well and we are going into printing,” the NDC National Chairman bemoaned.
He accused the EC of orchestrating a plan to put the ruling New Patriotic Party in a favourable position ahead of the its contenders.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FMMitchell Asare Amoamah
