Story: News Desk

The Electoral Commission (EC) has ordered a recall and reprinting of ballot papers for the Eastern and Western Regions after a leakage was detected with the initial ballot papers.

The Commission’s Chairperson, Jean Mensa announced this at an emergency news conference on Sunday, December 1.

According to the Commission, this has become necessary after it was informed by National Security that a single defaced paper was taken out of Checkpoint Printing Limited Printing House.

The defaced paper was earmarked for destruction but unfortunately found its way out of the firm which has been working with the Commission since 1992.

The reprinting will be done by Dark Press and Innolink.

As a result, the Commission has announced the suspension of the special voting exercise which is due to start tomorrow, Monday, for the two regions whose ballot papers were printed by Checkpoint Printing Limited Printing House.

The two regions will have their special voting on Thursday, December 5, before the general election on Saturday, December 7.

It said the security features of ballots for the two regions will be enhanced to differentiate them from the ones that have gone out.

The Commission said the total recall was  to ensure the integrity of the election.

It said all parties and contestants in the election have been informed of the development and have agreed to the recall and reprinting.

Before this incident, the EC similarly reprinted ballot papers for Ahafo and the Volta Region due to some errors with the initial printing. 

The Commission has also detected some shortfall in the ballot papers dispatched to some regions and is working to fix the anomaly.