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After the 2008 General Elections, Ghana was largely commended by the International Community for being one of the few African countries to have passed Huttinghton’s two-turn-over-of-the-executive test.

This was when there had been two transition of political power from one party to the either, as 2000 General Elections set the milestone. We may have done well in this regard in an area many African countries have failed, but our effort is bedeviled with very serious challenges that need immediate attention.

One major way of consolidating a country’s democracy is free, fair and transparent elections. Ghana’s elections under the 4th Republic have seen major improvements. However, in an environment where rejected ballots keeps increasing massively over time and far exceeds the votes gained by all political parties excluding the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party, this is very unhealthy for Ghana’s democratic credentials.

A senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana Legon, Dr. Ransford Gyampoh, has stated that the large number of spoilt ballots clearly affects the democratic choice of who becomes president or Member of Parliament.
He added that since elections in Ghana had been won on narrow margins, this matter should be of greater concern for Ghanaians.

Figures from the Electoral Commission (EC) show that, in 2008 General Elections, 205,438 ballots out of 8,671,272 votes cast were rejected ballots. This represented 2.4% of the total valid votes.

In the 2012 General Elections, the rejected ballots reached an alarming rate as 251,720 (2.3%); an increase of 46,282 in the previous elections. This is not healthy for our electoral process which has been acclaimed to be one of the best on the continent.
Prior to this year’s General Elections, I have not seen any conscious effort by the EC and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in addressing this serious problem. We should not be surprised if over 300, 000 valid votes cast find their way into the rejected ballot box in this year’s General Elections.

The EC must be serious and take the leading role in addressing this particular problem that has characterized Ghana’s elections for long.

In the 2008 elections, if any of the two leading parties, the NPP and NDC had gotten the rejected ballots; the nation would not have spent extra money to organize the second round of elections which really cost our country much.

The Biometric Verification Device (BVD) was introduced mainly to tackle the problem of double voting and that has further improved our electoral process even though there are some challenges that need to be addressed.

What has the EC done in minimizing rejected votes? Has the commission conducted a survey or scrutinized every rejected ballot to know which ones fall under:
• Voting for more than one candidate
• Ballots which were not stamped by the EC official
• No vote at all
• Feint voting, and any other form that could be classified as spoilt ballot and categorizing them in order to come to terms with the major causes of rejected ballots?

This will tell the basis of which the spoilt ballots are built upon. For instance, if it is detected at the end of the survey that ballots which were not stamped is the major cause of rejected ballot, it will be easier to address it. Thus, voters will be told to immediately examine the ballots to find out if it has been stamped by the EC before casting their ballots.

I took part in the 2012 General Elections as a reporter where I came into contact with what constitutes rejected ballots. From where I sit, I will find it difficult to believe that voting for more than one candidate is the major cause of rejected ballots.

It baffles my mind that thousands of people will deliberately do this. Something could be wrong somewhere that needs to be investigated for the betterment of our country. If folding of the ballot after voting is what is causing the problem on this category, then the EC must design a new method of printing the ballot papers.

Issues like change of logo which cost the state lots of money was peripheral knowing that rejected ballots is one of the major threats to our elections. I pray that we record low number of rejected ballots this time around and just after the elections are over, the EC must come clear on how it is working to dealing with spoilt ballots in our future elections.