Full text: Why Electoral Commission decided to shred printed ballots for Ahafo and Volta regions

In a bid to ensure a high level of professionalism and to maintain global standards at all levels of the electoral process, the Electoral Commission yesterday, 15th November, 2024, took a decision to reprint ballot papers for the Ahafo and Volta Regions.

This was based on the Commission’s own audit process instituted at all Printing Houses responsible for printing ballot papers for the 2024 elections.

Our audit revealed that the Printing House that was printing the ballots for Ahafo and Volta, had encountered a number of challenges. While the printing of the ballots had gone on seamlessly, the serialisation which was supposed to be done through an automated system to provide serial numbers based on a sequence, had gaps.

Asa result, a manual system was adopted by the Printing House to fill the gaps. Upon further assessment, the Commission decided that the manual system was not fool-proof and could therefore not be relied upon to produce an accurate serialisation of the ballots.

In the light of the above, the Commission took the decision to reprint the ballot papers and informed the Political Parties at an Emergency IPAC Meeting on Friday, 15th November, 2024. The re-printing of the ballot papers for Ahafo and Volta Regions will be undertaken by Buck Press and Acts Commercials respectively.

As has always been the case, the affected ballot papers will be shredded and incinerated (burned). Both activities will be witnessed by Agents of the Political Parties and a Destruction Certificate will be issued and signed by them.

It is important for the Public to know that the challenges with serialisation were brought to the attention of the Commission by the EC Team stationed at the said Printing House and also confirmed by the Audit Department of the Commission. No Political Party, whether formally or informally, notified the Commission about the challenges with serialisation at the Printing House, even though their agents were present throughout the process.

The decision to dispose of the printed ballot papers was based solely on reports from the EC Team at the said Printing House and confirmed by its Audit Department.

Thank you.
Samuel Tettey Deputy Chairman, Operations

 

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