Mahama calls for investigation into ballot paper irregularities

President-elect John Mahama has called for an urgent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the possession of illegal ballot papers by unauthorised individuals during the just-ended elections.

Speaking during a visit from members of minority political parties, Mr Mahama called for the need for stringent measures to address issues of ballot paper security, which he claims undermine the integrity of the electoral process.

During the election, reports surfaced of several individuals being arrested by the police for allegedly possessing large numbers of thumbprinted ballot papers.

Mr Mahama expressed his concern over the ongoing problems related to the printing and handling of ballot papers, which he believes could be contributing to electoral fraud.

“There are still issues of ballot paper printing and ballot paper stuffing because in many cases, we found people with EC ballot papers, genuine ballot papers and the questions we must investigate. How do they get these ballot papers? Who prints them for them? Who gives these ballot papers to these people? How do they get the plate of the Electoral Commission to be able to print ballot papers?” he questioned.

He called for a full investigation into these issues, emphasizing that it is critical to protect the integrity of the process moving forward.

He also questioned the local printing capacity of the Electoral Commission, suggesting that the country may need to reconsider its reliance on domestic printing companies to produce ballot papers.

“If we continue to face situations where duplicates of the ballot papers leak, we may need to look at printing these papers outside and bringing them in,” he indicated.

The president-elect stressed that the problem of ballot paper leakage must be resolved to prevent further risks to the election’s fairness. He also called on security printers to work together and ensure they implement better safeguards.

“If they don’t want to lose business, they must stop these issues because they undermine the electoral process,” Mahama said.

President-elect John Mahama also raised concerns about discrepancies in pink sheets used to record voting results, noting that different versions were sometimes presented at the coalition center by parties and the Electoral Commission.

He suggested that this could indicate potential manipulation of results by electoral officers, stressing the need to address these issues to maintain the credibility of Ghana’s electoral process.