The Electoral Commission (ERC) has informed the general public that the positions of candidates on the 2024 Presidential Election Ballot Paper remain unchanged.
The Commission has therefore urged the public to ignore all fake stories to the contrary. Thank you.
The special voters have started casting their ballots in the special voting exercise which started today Monday, December 2.
The process began at exactly 7 AM at the municipal police headquarters where personnel of the state security agencies, workers of the Electoral Commission and members of the media are queuing to cast their vote.
Municipal director of the Electoral Commission Tetteh Okine speaking to TV3 said the process was so far fluid.
About 131,478 voters, constituting 0.007 per cent of the total registered electorate of 18,741,159, are expected to take part in this Special Voting which takes place in 14 regions instead of 16.
The Eastern and Western Regions have been excluded from today’s exercise.
Explaining the reason for the exclusion of the Eastern and Western Regions, Chairperson of the Commission, Jean Mensa at a press briefing on Sunday, December 1, 2024 announced that the decision was taken after a single defaced ballot paper meant for the Presidential election for the Eastern Region was leaked out of the printing house.
“The special voting for Eastern and Western Regions will not take place on Monday, December 2 as planned. It will now take place on Thursday, December 5,” Jean Mensa said.
According to the EC, the defaced ballot papers although had been earmarked for destruction by the company, “it found it way out of the printing house. The commission was informed by the National Security that one single defaced ballot paper meant for the Presidential election for the Eastern Region had been taken out of the printing house.”
“The printing was undertaken by Rocheck Limited and supervised and observed by the National Investigation Bureau, the National Security as well as the agents of the political parties and EC staff,” she added.
For the Western Region, the ballot papers have also been recalled for a reprint because it was the same printing house, Rocheck Limited that printed ballot papers for the Eastern Region.
The Commission together with the parties agreed for ballot papers of both regions to be reprinted.
The Commission said three printing houses had been engaged to reprint the ballot papers for the two regions and information will be provided to the various political parties.
“The commission is of the view that as part of its efforts to remain transparent it was important to inform the political parties about the leakage of this single ballot paper for the presidential in the Eastern Region,” Jean Mensa said.
The special voting arrangement is intended to accommodate voters who will be performing election-related duties on the main polling day.
Source:3news.com