The African Electoral Institute (AEI) has made a recommendation to the Electoral Commission (EC) to engage a company that is not aligned to any political party to print the ballot materials for the upcoming general elections.
The civil society organisation says it is making the recommendation because any choice of a company perceived to be biased towards a political party to print the voting materials for the December 7 polls could generate suspicion and controversy among the political stakeholders involved in the elections and cause confusion.
“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 some time now have come to the realisation 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,” the organisation said in a press statement issued Friday by its Director of Communications and External Relations, Joshua Adjin-Adjin Tettey.
To avoid such controversies and suspicions, the AEI suggested the selection of a printing company for the voting or ballot materials for the December 2024 elections should be done through an open and competitive tendering process.
While cautioning against sole sourcing of the procurement process, the organisation also stressed that the chosen company should be in good standing and one acceptable to all political stakeholders.
“No Company linked to any politically exposed person or persons must be given the contract to avoid any suspicion or speculation of anyone trying to circumvent the electoral process in favour of anyone. The Electoral Commission must, at all times, live by its motto of transparency, fairness, and integrity.
“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,” said the statement.
Headquartered in Ghana’s capital, Accra, the AEI was founded in 2020 to deliver sustainable electoral solutions to emerging and developed democracies in Africa.
The solutions are aimed at strengthening, augmenting and building electoral stakeholders’ capacities and participation in electoral issues through electoral education on voters’ rights and freedoms, electoral research, election monitoring, election observation, election results collation, election security awareness and training of polling agents and election directors.
The solutions are also meant to underscore the fact that elections are won at the polling stations, to highlight the participation of all identifiable electoral stakeholders including political parties and governmental institutions in an electoral process and to promote transparency and accountability for free, fair and credible elections in Africa and the world as a whole.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
