The Convention People’s Party (CPP), has said it is against the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to print excess pink sheets which will not have serial numbers embossed on them.
The political parties, especially the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has expressed concerns with the EC’s decision to print some three thousand excess unmarked pink sheets for replacement purposes, even though the Commission has explained there will be remarkable differences between the marked and unmarked ones.
Speaking to Citi News, the Convention People’s Party’s ( CPP) Communications Director, Kadir Abdul Rauf Issifu, emphasized the need for the Electoral Commission (EC), to ensure that it follows due process in the printing of pink sheets.
“It was established that, about 3,000 pink sheets did not have serial numbers. You do not expect the Convention People’s Party to say that we do not see anything wrong with it. The Electoral Commission should ensure that due process is adhered to. The rules set out in CI 94 should be strictly adhered to. In doing that, we have to ensure all pink sheets have serial numbers,” he said.
NPP challenges printing of pink sheets without serial numbers
The New Patriotic Party had earlier requested for an emergency meeting of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), over what it described as an illegality; the printing of pink sheets without serial numbers.
The NPP said it identified the anomaly when it visited Aero Vote, the company contracted to print the pink sheets for this year’s elections.
The party in a statement copied to citifmonline.com, said it was surprised the company said it had been directed to print the sheets without the serial numbers.
“The Electoral Reforms Committee report, recommended that Serial Numbers must be embossed and be unique to each polling station. This has been stated in the law governing the 2016 general elections, CI 94,” it said.
“Since then, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission has said publicly that, Pink Sheets will have serial numbers. We are therefore surprised to be told at the final hour of printing by those contracted to print, that they have been instructed by the same Commission not to bother putting serial numbers on the pink sheets,” it added.
However, the Electoral Commission (EC) suddenly dismissed these allegations describing them as false claims.
Describing the allegations as regrettable, the Commission said the NPP would have been better served raising concerns with it rather than “rush to the media with unfounded claims of non-existent plans to manipulate election results.”
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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