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.
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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