“Election is not an event. It is a process.” and ballot paper printing is one of such processes.
The African Electoral Institute has followed processes leading to the 7th December 2024 general elections by the Electoral Commission with keen interest, starting from the time the electoral calendar was rolled out. So far, we have gone through the limited voter registration through to the voter register exhibition exercise, which went fairly well despite some challenges encountered.
The African Electoral Institute having followed elections in Ghana for sometime now have come to the realization that, aside the voters register which always come with some challenges as we are witnessing currently, another area which generates a lot of controversy and suspicions, has to do with the printing of voting or ballot materials.
To forestall this phenomenon or change the narrative for the 2024 general elections, the African Electoral Institute wishes to suggest the following;
1. That the process for choosing a Printing Company to print the voting or ballot materials for the December 2024 elections must be subjected to open competitive tender
2. That there should be no sole sourcing of the procurement process.
3. That no Company linked to any politically exposed person (s) must be given the contract to avoid any suspicion or speculation of anyone trying to circumvent the electoral process in favour of anyone.
4. The chosen company must be of good standing and acceptable to all the political stakeholders .
The African Electoral Institute believes that if the above suggestions are put into place by the Electoral Commission, it will prevent any perceived bias or manipulation of the electoral process and highlight the fact that this is a crucial step towards ensuring the integrity of the 2024 general elections. The Electoral Commission must, at all times, live by its motto of transparency, fairness, and integrity.
SIGNED
*Joshua Adjin-Adjin Tettey*
*Director of Communications and External Relations*
0540904550
*Ex. WO Alhaji Yussif Mahamah*
*Electoral Security Department*
0243311965
*Seyram Mankra*
Electoral Research Department.
0244747128
*Engr. Judge Hasford Quartey*
*Deputy Director of Communications and External Relations.*
0547510174
*Emmanuel Kwesi Biri*
Electoral Monitoring and Observation Department.
0538421573
*About Us:*
African Electoral Institute ( AEI) is a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) founded to deliver sustainable electoral solutions to Emerging and Developed Democracies to strengthen, augment, and build electoral stakeholders capacity and participation on electoral issues through electoral education on voter’s rights and freedom, electoral research, election monitoring, election observation, election results collation, election security awareness and training of polling agents and elections directors underscoring the fact that “elections are won at the polling stations’’ and the participation of all identifiable electoral stakeholders in an electoral process such as Political Parties, Governmental Institutions, underpinning transparency and accountability for a free, fair, and credible elections in Africa and the wider world.
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