Politician and businessman, Rojo Mettle Nunoo has suggested that the Electoral Commission procures its own printing equipment to enable it manage the printing of ballots papers. He told Myjoyonline in an interview that given the huge sums the Commission spends on the printing of ballots and other election materials, it would make economic sense for the Commission to embark on such a project, and more importantly, go a long way to further ensure the credibility of Ghana’s electoral process. Rojo Mettle Nunoo said the current arrangement of sourcing the printing of such crucial materials to commercial printers raises too much suspicion, especially where the printers are thought to be sympathizers of the ruling government. He alleged too many infractions of the electoral laws and rules occurred during the first round of voting on December 7 that should not be glossed over. According to the leader of the National Democratic Congress’ team to the Electoral Commission’s strong room where official poll results are confirmed and certified, glossing over the abuses, majority of which sought to subvert the will of the people, will bring to naught all the acclaimed credibility of Ghana’s electoral process. “There were definitely several problems with the 7th December poll and it will be very wrong for people to give the impression that many things that happened in the first round are acceptable in terms of what should happen in a free, fair and transparent elections. “The fact that, for example, a particular side of the border was closed when other borders were left open, is a very worrying development. We have word that the Togo side of the border is going to be closed again. You don’t close one particular border thereby disenfranchising tribal supporters of a particular party and justify that when other borders in other parts of the country are all open. The airports were not closed, the Cote d’Ivoire side of the border was open and the Burkina side of the border was also open.” Rojo said there were several incidents of over-voting, several of such incidents were dramatic in the Ashanti Region, stronghold of the ruling New Patriotic Party. “Now when you have over-voting in a number of constituencies where the accounting of the poll is not being done properly, you then have a problem because the Ashanti Region has very high numbers, indeed, of registered voters and when you have over-voting in these areas, what it means is that you have a situation where firstly, you have votes issues, on the basis of the total number of registered voters. And in the end of the poll, you don’t get a clear understanding that all the ballot papers issued to that polling station have been accounted for. Now even though the total constituency results may show a certain level of voter turnout, the shocks, the over-voting in some other areas makes up for that so it doesn’t become apparent and at the collation centre, if that happens, nobody seems to know that there was really over-voting. “What is therefore required is that in every polling station, the Electoral Commission must declare the total number of registered voters, and the total number of transferred voters and then on the basis of the ballot papers issued, you will then be able to make a proper determination of where are all the ballot papers. “In some cases there may still be unused ballot papers and a lot more ballot papers coming from outside, so what should happen in terms of accounting for the poll is checking the serial numbers of the ballot papers that were given or issued to that specific polling station and given that you have patience to do that you discover strange serial numbers that were not part of the distribution to your particular polling station.” Rojo Mettle Nunoo also suggested that in the presidential poll for instance, where the entire country is considered one constituency, the EC must synchronize its results accounting and reporting formats between its returning offers and the strong room. He explained that, “One should get a sense that the Returning Officer at the constituency collation centre will not just count or receive returns from polling stations, he should be checking total number of registered voters, checking total number of ballot papers issued, checking total number of unused ballots, checking total number of spoilt ballots, checking total number of rejected ballots, and then on the basis of the valid votes that are there, he will then determine who gets what. And that is when you have accounted properly for the poll. “Now between the Electoral Commission’s officers at the constituency level, and the strong room at the EC headquarters, the format changes….in the final results that come to the Electoral Commission, they don’t tell you this is the total number of registered voters, this is the total number of ballots that were issued, this is the total number of unused ballots, this is the total number of spoilt ballots, and this is the rejected ballots and these are the valid votes cast and this is how it was shared.” According to Rojo, the EC’s explanation that figures reported to its strong room had been certified by accredited agents of the contesting parties, cannot stop abuses of the process. “It is not for our agents, who may be sufficiently illiterate to give an opinion as to what the conduct of electoral officers should be. Electoral officers have a mandate to account for the poll.” Again, Rojo said a strong impression was also created by officials of the New Patriotic Party that they were attempting to coerce the Electoral Commission to declare the polls in their favour. He said officials like Kwabena Agyei Agyapong, Dan Kwaku Botwe and Nana Ohene Ntow, who were all accredited to the Strong Room, were later found in the IT room, a no-go area for all the parties, while Greater Accra Regional Minister, Sheik I.C. Quaye, his deputy, Amerley Tagoe, Accra Mayor Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey and Prof Mike Oquaye were all striding the corridors of the EC offices. “If in the conduct of this election, it is permissible for party officials to be sitting with the Electoral Commissioner, then all of us should be told that yes, we can sit with the Electoral Commissioner, we can sit with commissioners of the Electoral Commission, we can have observers in every single area of the electoral process so that we can monitor the poll, but we had the impression that the NPP was trying to arm-twist the Electoral Commission so that they declare false electoral results and that is totally unacceptable. (Listen to the entire interview in the attached audio) Story by Isaac Yeboah