NDC petitions IGP to investigate a firm that allegedly printed 1 million excess ballots for election 2020
The National Democratic Congress in its quest to bring finality to the alleged printing of extra ballot papers has called on the Inspector-General of Police to investigate the issue in the 2020 General elections.
The NDC in their petition signed by the party’s General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia want those culpable to be punished for such an act.
“I write on behalf of the National Democratic Congress to petition your office to institute criminal investigations into and prosecute persons culpable in the illegal printing of over one million excess presidential ballots meant for the Ashanti Region at Innolink Printing press, one of the seven security printing firms contracted by the Electoral Commission to print election materials for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections,” a portion of the petition said.
According to the NDC, its petition was triggered by the fact that there had not been any update on the probe with regards to electoral malpractices and violence that characterized the election and voter registration exercise.
“As you are aware, the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections were characterised by various acts of violence before, during, and after elections. Indeed, for the first time in Ghana’s electoral history, at least one person lost his life during voter registration and as many eight others lost their lives in incidents of gun violence involving security personnel with several others sustaining various degrees of injuries.
“We contend that the failure on the part of the Police to deal decisively with such heinous crimes portends clear dangers for Ghana’s democracy that all well-meaning Ghanaians and development partners should be concerned about. It is for this reason that we request that the Ghana Police Service provides us updates on the state of investigation and prosecution.”
Since the 2020 elections, the NDC has always complained that there was over-voting in the 2020 general elections.
The Electoral Commission (EC) last week called on the Ghana Police Service to probe claims by former president John Mahama that there was over-voting in the 2020 general elections.
However, the NDC’s claims were debunked by Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission in charge of Corporate Affairs Dr Eric Bossman Asare who called on the Police to probe the allegation.
“The former president has said that the EC thumb printed one million ballot papers in favour of the President of the Republic [Nana Akufo-Addo]. This is untrue… This is not a matter that should be ignored, and we call on the Ghana Police Service to investigate it… This is a great matter that undermines the credibility of the electoral process and should not be ignored. We call on him to provide evidence to support this claim,” Bossman Asare.
The NDC had already lost the election petition at the Supreme Court that sought to challenge the legitimacy of the presidential results and the subsequent winner.
They are also some court cases pending as they sought to challenge the outcome of some parliamentary seats declared in favour of the NPP.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
