[ 2016-11-16 ]

Dec polls: NPP rejects pink sheets
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has
accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of printing
pink sheets without serial numbers and described
that act as illegal.

According to the party, they were informed by Aero
Vote, the company contracted to print the pink
sheets that there would not be any embossment of
serial numbers on the pink sheets contrary to what
they had been told by the EC Chair Charlotte Osei
at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC)
meeting.

The concern raised by the NPP adds to the litany
of concerns raised by the party in the lead-up to
the presidential and parliamentary elections in
December.

The party had earlier detected an error on the
parliamentary ballot papers distributed by the EC
to the Ashanti Region, saying the ballot papers do
not bear the initials of the NPP as had been done
for all other competing political parties.

The party in a statement has called on the EC to
correct the anomaly.

Below is the full statement:

We wish to share with the general public, in the
interest of transparency, a very disturbing turn
of events regarding the printing of the Statement
of Poll and the Declaration of Results forms, Form
Eight, commonly referred to as Pink Sheets.

Today, Aero Vote, the company which won the $8.95
million contract to print the Statement of Poll
and Declaration of Results Forms (Form Eight), and
other results-related carbonized election forms
started the printing of the said forms.

We went there today to inspect the work and were
surprised to be told by Aero Vote that they have
been told not to emboss serial numbers on the pink
sheets.

The contract for the printing of Pink Sheets makes
provisions for the printing of 3,000 extra forms.
The idea is for each constituency to have 10 extra
forms. Those 3,000, will naturally not have the
Polling Station Name and Polling Station Code on
them. Without serial numbers on them as well, we
think this leaves them open to manipulation.

The Public Elections Regulations, 2016 (CI 94) in
the Schedules part at pages 48 and 49 has a sample
of the exact format that the law says Form Eight,
or the Pink Sheet for both parliamentary and
presidential results should take. Material to the
issue today is that at the top left hand of Form
Eight is space for the unique serial number for
each form to be inserted.

The Electoral Reforms Committee Report recommended
that Serial Numbers must be embossed and be unique
to each polling station. This has been stated in
the law governing the 2016 general elections, CI
94.

Since then, the Chairperson of the Electoral
Commission has said publicly that Pink Sheets will
have serial numbers. We are, therefore, surprised
to be told at the final hour of printing by those
contracted to print that they have been instructed
by the same Commission not to bother putting
serial numbers on the Pink Sheets.

This is not acceptable. It affects the integrity
of the base document for the declaration of
results.

We have written to the Chairperson of the
Electoral Commission requesting for an emergency
meeting of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee to
discuss this issue and other matters, including
seeking complete clarity on what happens in the
event of over- voting.


Ghanaians recall how Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, the
then Chairman of the Electoral Commission, could
not explain to the Supreme Court at the election
petition trial of 2013 why the Commission in 2012
instructed the printer to produce another set of
at least 26,002 Pink Sheets, duplicating serial
numbers.

The company which did the printing of Pink Sheets
in 2012, through a sub contract from a Ghanaian
company, was this same Aero Vote, then a UK
security printing firm, before it went into
liquidation and closed down in 2013.

Aero Vote has since moved to Ghana, winning the
contract for this year’s forms on its own steam
as a Ghanaian company. Details of the printing
work includes the printing of 29,000 Forms Eight
EL 21 A and EL 22A for the parliamentary results
pink sheets and their 3,000 replacements (in case
of damage or errors); 29,000 Forms EL 21B and EL
22B for the presidential results, plus 3,000
replacements; 275 collation sheets each and 30
replacements each for the parliamentary (EL 23A)
and presidential (EL 23B) polls, respectively and;
275 Constituency Results Summary Sheets plus 30
replacements each for parliamentary (EL 24A) and
presidential (EL 24B) results, respectively. All
will come with carbonized copies for candidates or
their agents.

We want to throw light on this matter of omitting
serial numbers on the Pink Sheets quickly so that
the Commission can take immediate steps to correct
this serious anomaly for the forms being printed
to conform to the law, CI 94.

Time is not on our side. The election is three
weeks away. We do not need another court case. Let
us do what is right now to protect the national
quest for credible and peaceful elections.

Source - Classfmonline

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