EC reschedules special voting in Eastern and Western regions over leaked ballot paper

The Electoral Commission (EC) has rescheduled the special voting exercise in the Eastern and Western regions from Monday, 2 December, to Thursday, 5 December. This follows the EC’s decision to recall ballot papers for both regions due to the leakage of a defaced presidential ballot paper designated for the Eastern Region.

Addressing an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Sunday, December 1, EC Chairperson Jean Mensa stated that the recall and reprinting of ballot papers aim to ensure the integrity of the elections.

She explained:

On Friday night, the Commission was informed by the National Security that one single defaced ballot paper meant for the Eastern Region had been taken out of the printing house. The printing was undertaken by Checkpoint Limited, supervised by the National Investigation Bureau, National Security, the police, political party agents, and Eclipse staff. This single defaced paper, marked for destruction, somehow left the printing house.

The EC subsequently informed political parties and presidential candidates’ representatives of the incident. Mensa indicated that all parties have agreed to the reprinting of the ballot papers for both regions since the Western Region’s ballots were also printed by Checkpoint Limited.

She noted that the new ballot papers will include enhanced security features:

Therefore, the ballot papers for the two regions, Eastern Region and Western Region will be destroyed by burning and a new reprint ordered starting today. It is important to note that in order to ensure the integrity of the ballot paper, the Commission will introduce new security features onto ballots that will be printed for the Eastern Region and the Western Region. In addition to that, the serial numbers for those ballots for the two regions would be revised.

The EC's Chairperson further disclosed that the commission will engage three printing houses to hasten the printing process.

The defaced ballot incident comes shortly after a separate report of a broken seal on an electoral materials bag in Koforidua. The Ghana Police Service has assured the public that the bag’s contents remained intact.

Special voting for the Eastern and Western Regions has been rescheduled to December 5 after National Security raised concerns about a ballot paper, originally meant for destruction, being “taken out” of Checkpoint Printing House.#GhanaPolls2024#ElectionBureau#CitiVerify pic.twitter.com/CHVF0OEorz

— ChannelOne TV (@Channel1TVGHA) December 1, 2024

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