The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has asked the Electoral Commission (EC) to count and make known the ballots emanating from the special voting which will precede the December 7 elections to help avoid “confusion and rigging.”
According to the party, keeping mute on the results of the special voting which will take place one week before making the results known could help promote confusion.
The Afigya Kwabre South Constituency Chairman of the opposition NPP, Odeneho Kwaku Appiah made the observation said if the EC intends to go ahead to hold on to declaring the results of the special voting, then it should allow all political parties to keep an eye on the ballots which would be kept at the police station.
Odeneho Appiah was speaking at Atimatim near Kumasi during the launch of “Mmaa Nsore” (Women Arise) under the women’s wing of the NPP for the constituency.
The special voting is normally done by EC staff, security personnel, journalists and other persons whose nature of work does not allow them to vote on Election Day hence these people are given the priority to cast their ballots ahead of Election Day.
By convention, the EC do not count the ballots cast in the special voting.
The ballot boxes are not opened but party agents are made to add their seal to that of the EC polling officer and the boxes are kept at the police station and only brought out to the collation centre on Election Day, opened, counted and added to the constituency total.
But this year the NPP has raised issues with the procedure and called on the EC to count and make the results known right after voting before it is added to the constituency total on Election Day.
Odeneho Appiah maintained that there was the need to ensure free and fair elections with regards to the special voting.
“We are determined to protect ballot boxes on special voting day till the day they are counted. We will not allow ourselves to be cheated this time round. It is either the EC would count ballots at the end of special voting or we will sleep at where these boxes are kept till December 7,” he stated.
Commenting on their trust for the police to keep an eye on the boxes, he said Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) by convention were heads of the security councils in their various assemblies and their neutrality in ensuring the safety of ballot boxes from rigging were questionable.
“If our MMDCEs will still be heads of security councils within their respective areas how can we trust them for the safety of Special Voting ballot boxes in police stations? We can trust the police, so we need representatives of all participating political parties to safeguard every single box placed in police custody”, he stated.
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