[ 2016-11-16 ]

A/R ballot papers: NPP were 'negligent' – NDC

.
A/R ballot papers: NPP were 'negligent' – NDC


The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) was
negligent as far as its monitoring of the printing
of error-riddled ballot papers for the
parliamentary poll in the Ashanti Region is
concerned, the Elections Director of the governing
National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Samuel
Ofosu Ampofo, has said.

The NPP has rejected the ballot papers because its
initials were not captured on them as was done for
all the other parties in the contest. Instead,
only its logo was captured on the paper.

Speaking on the matter on Class91.3FM’s 505 news
programme with Emefa Apawu on Tuesday, Mr Ofosu
Ampofo said: “Didn’t they see it when the
samples were printed before they went into mass
production? What were they doing? What were their
monitors doing? If through their negligence they
didn’t present the right thing, why should the
country go and bear the cost of this expenditure?

The EC, in a statement issued by Eric Kofi
Dzakpasu, Head of Communications, denied the
existence of errors on the printout. It said:
“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 record that the claim
is entirely inaccurate.

Below are the facts:

1. 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
ballot sheets.

2. For the parliamentary notice of polls and
ballot sheets, the New Patriotic Party
specifically indicated their satisfaction with the
logo as processed for printing.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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 be added to the logo, and that has been
done.

6. Therefore, it cannot be accurate that the
Commission committed any design or printing errors
as being speculated or claimed.”

The NPP has, however, come out to say that it did
not give the go-ahead for the use of the logo.

Source - Classfmonline

... go Back