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The Electoral Commission (EC) has started dispatching ballot papers to various parts of the country for the December 7 elections.

The process began on Saturday amidst tight security and monitoring by representatives of the various political parties.

First to be dispatched to the Upper West Region were ballot papers for the parliamentary poll.

Pictures of the sealed ballot papers somehow managed to get to the social media amidst speculations that they were being smuggled.

But the EC and the police came to deny the reports.

Initial speculations had it that the police in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital, had intercepted ballot papers from some members of a political party and that the culprits were taken into custody.

But Deputy Upper West Regional Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Shaibu Gariba, told Joy FMthat the electoral materials for the 11 constituencies in the region were printed in Accra and brought to Wa.

The Electoral Commission later issued a statement, urging the public to disregard completely the speculation, describing it as “wicked lies deliberately calculated to cause confusion.”

A statement from the commission indicated that “the printed ballots for the Upper West Region arrived at the regional police headquarters in Wa this morning. Representatives of the political parties in the region were invited to witness the delivery process and confirm their seals on the bag.”

According to the EC, “Some of these political party representatives took these pictures at the Wa regional police headquarters.”

It, therefore, expressed surprise that the same political party representatives were circulating these pictures with “such ludicrous claims,” insisting that “this is totally irresponsible and unacceptable.”

The statement pointed out that “for the records, the printing process of the ballot was closely monitored by representatives of the political parties on a 24-hour shift basis. There was also a 24-hour police protection of the ballot printing process.”

Aside that, the statement said, “Record was taken of every single ballot printed and at the end of the day, the printing house was closed in the presence of all political party representatives.
“Every morning, the printing house was not opened unless the representatives of the political parties were present and printing did not start until all the representatives of the political parties were present.”

After the ballot printing process had been completed, the EC indicated that “the ballot papers were packaged and labeled per constituency, and the political parties placed their uniquely numbered seals on the bags. Even the movement of the ballots was closely monitored by the police; and the political parties are duly notified.”

Later in the day, some ballot papers were also dispatched to the Ashanti Region.

Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that they were sent with two trucks with registration numbers GV 461-10 and GV 22 Y, with each carrying a total of 150 and 42 bags of parliamentary ballot papers respectively.

In the Eastern Region, the papers, contained in a deep-green rectangular shape bag for each of the 33 constituencies, arrived Sunday morning at the Regional Police Church premises for inspection and sealing by the various political parties, as well as the officials of the EC for subsequent dispatch to the districts.

The two main political parties – the NPP and the NDC – were the only parties present to check the number of ballot papers and their serial numbers for each constituency.

Later the constituency executives of the two parties okayed the content, sealed the bags with their unique mechanical plastic seals with security serial numbers.

The NPP sealed each bag with a red plastic seal while the NDC and the EC sealed the bags with white and green seals respectively and subsequently dispatched under police escort to all the district police commands.

For Affram Plains North and South Districts, the political parties agreed to await for the arrival of the presidential ballot papers, possibly next week to be added due to the distance.

The unique plastic pull-trap-security seals make it impossible for the bags to be tampered with unnoticed.