W/R NPP RAISES RED FLAGS OVER PRESIDENTIAL BALLOT PAPERS BUT EC SAYS NO CAUSE FOR ALARM

The Western Region Chapter of the opposition New Patriotic Party is up-in-arms over the presidential ballot papers that were recently transported to the western region.

The presidential ballot papers arrived on the 21^st of November and was inspected by the Political parties on the following day in the presence of the Electoral Commission and security officials.

But the NPP is not happy. Its Secretary for the Western Region Charles Bissue told Francis Whajah that some constituencies have more than the 5% extra ballot papers required by law.

“We are not happy with this development and wish to raise red flags over this” He said.

But the Western Regional Electoral Commissioner Steve Opoku Mensah has been responding to their concerns, He says it is purely mathematics and not the intention of the EC to deliberately increase the ballot papers by more than 5% in some areas.

He said ballot papers are provided in sequence of 50, 25 and 100’s and it will be difficult to get the exact 5% the NPP wants in some constituencies.

“For instance, if a polling station has 75 voters, 5% of the 75 voters will give you 3.75. If you add 3.75 to 75 it gives you 78.5. But the ballot papers are issued in sequence of 50, 25 and 100 and we will have to issue 100 papers instead of 78 and that will be more than 5%. If it is 25, you cannot tear 10 out of it so all the 25 must go and therefore you will not get the 5% they are calculating for a whole constituency.” The EC Boss said.

He stated that the party agents would be there to monitor the elections and the ballot papers will be accounted for and political parties should not worry.

“It is better to have more than shortage”. He emphasized. 

The ballot papers have since been transported to the 26 constituencies of the region.