The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has entreated
election stakeholders to launch a probe into issues concerning markings detected
on ballot sheets dispatched to some communities.“We strongly condemn any
attempt to manipulate the election materials and call on the appropriate
authorities to investigate these acts immediately,” a statement dated Monday,
November 21 urged.
According to a press release issued by NPP’s Acting
General Secretary John Boadu, all political parties were given an opportunity to
inspect the seals on the bags containing election materials for the 31
constituencies in the Northern Region.
The NPP said during the exercise,
their representatives also requested to inspect the contents of the bags,
including the ballot papers.
“They discovered that parliamentary ballot
papers for Savelugu constituency arrived with the NDC candidate having his
ballot column already marked, which, on voting day, could have been confused
with a thumbprint. The consequence of this, if left unchecked, would have been
that voters who cast their ballots for other candidates risked having their
votes rejected,” the party lamented.
The statement pointed out that a
similar objection was also raised against ballots for Wulensi.
“The EC
subsequently took steps to return the ballots as rejected and for new ballot
papers to be printed for the affected constituencies,” the statement
said.
For them, the swift response by the EC was commendable; however the
party executives have charged “representatives and agents to take time to
inspect the entire ballot papers sent to the respective regions, districts, and
constituencies”. |
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