It has emerged that the design the Electoral Commission (EC) intends to use as its new logo is that of an educational and career counselling centre in Turkey.
The Turkish institute may be smiling all the way to the bank if the EC goes ahead to outdoor the ‘stolen’ logo, since the owner may sue for theft of intellectual property.
The yet-to-be-launched logo, which activist Kinna Likimani says looks like children going to play basket ball, came to light on Tuesday when the EC organised a workshop for journalists on election reportage in Accra.
It is meant to replace the original logo of the Commission, which is made up of the national insignia – the coat of arms – and a hand casting a ballot.
A day after the story about the logo broke, Manasseh Azure Awuni of Joy FM posted a picture of the centre with the name and same logo as that which the EC wants to outdoor, saying, “This is an educational and career counselling centre in Ankara, Turkey.”
Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is accusing the Electoral Commission of plagiarism following the election management body's decision to outdoor a new logo.
Director of Elections of the NPP, Martin Agyei Mensah-Korsah, who questioned the relevance of out-dooring a new logo now in an interview with the media after an IPAC meeting on Thursday, described the plagiarized act by the EC a "national embarrassment".
"One will think that in a time like this when we have 14 days to a registration, there are still very critical aspects of this process to be met…On the whole, general election calendar, we have already missed some timelines. Already the issue of the register remains unresolved…Any little time the commission has should be geared towards practically working out these modalities...To bring in the issue of a logo, one wonders what the relevance is and is that a priority?...Indeed, we’ve seen the firm’s logo, if you compare to the commission’s logo, it’s exactly the same thing; plagiarized. It is becoming a national embarrassment if the national electoral commission copies the logo of another company. It’s a bit worrying.’’
The EC is expected to outdoor the logo before the end of April.
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