The Electoral Commission of Ghana has debunked allegations by some members of the opposition New Patriotic Party that the Commission committed an error in the printing of the party’s logo on the notice of poll ahead of the December elections.
The Commission, reacting to news that confusion broke out at its Ashanti Regional office of following a protest by the NPP that its logo on the printed ballot did not have the party’s initials as the other parties had.
According to the EC, “it cannot be accurate that the Commission committed any design or printing errors as being speculated or claimed.”
Eric Dzakpasu, the Head of Communications of the EC in a statement said its records show the NPP did not have initials as part of its logo.
He argued that the NPP, although had its representatives present at a printing house where the ballot were printing, they at no point raised objections about the logo that was being printed.
The statement further noted that “is only for the Presidential Ballot that the NPP has specifically requested that its acronym should be added to the logo.”
The Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NPP, Sam Payne had earlier told Citi News, the party would demanding a reprint of the ballot papers if the omission is considered an illegality.
He said although the ballots have already been dispatched to the various electoral areas in the region, the NPP is expecting a swift response to ensure that the party is not disadvantaged during the elections.
The Commission’s attention has been drawn to reports in sections of the media suggesting that the Commission had printed a ‘wrong logo’ for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the Parliamentary ballot sheets. We would like to place on the records that the claim is entirely inaccurate. Below are the facts:
All Political Parties participating in this year’s elections worked closely with the Commission’s Directorate of Electoral Services to agree on the acceptable logo for their parties to be printed on the Notice of Polls and the ballots sheets.
For the Parliamentary Notice of Polls and Ballot Sheets, the New Patriotic Party specifically indicated their satisfaction with the logo as processed for printing.
During the printing process, not only did the party have its representatives at the printing houses at all material times, high ranking officers of the party visited the printing houses regularly to monitor the process. At no point did they raise any objections about the NPP’s logo as it was being printed.
For the avoidance of doubt, we have added the NPP’s official logo as it appears on the party’s letterheads. It is clear from the pictures that the party uses these two versions of their logo interchangeably. Both do not include the party’s acronym as now being claimed
We would like to further place on the record that it is only for the Presidential Ballot that the NPP has specifically requested that its acronym should be added to the logo, and that has been done.
Therefore, it cannot be accurate that the Commission committed any design or printing errors as being speculated or claimed.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
