The NDC has turned down suggestions of some six flagbearer aspirants of the party to award the contract of printing ballot papers for the upcoming elections to a state-owned printing house.
The six aspirants petitioned the party and suggested that the contract should be awarded to a trustworthy printing firm like the state-owned Assembly Press to ensure free and fair elections and prevent irregularities.
In an interview with CitiNews monitored by PrimeNewsGhana, Peter Otukunor, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC said such a move will be very risky since the printing house is headed by a staunch member of the New Patriotic Party.
According to the Deputy General Secretary,''To suggest we give the ballot printing to an NPP let my vote count leader David Asante to print our ballot papers for us is most unfortunate. If they decide that they are going to mess us up then we are in big trouble. Meanwhile, it is important to underscore the point that procurement and management of the party administration cannot be put in the hands of the flagbearer aspirants''.
He added that ''The party has not communicated any print out to them so it is rather unfortunate they are raising these concerns when the process has not started. Indeed, according to our timetable printing is supposed to start on the 3rd''.
Addressing issues raised by the aspirants regarding the lack of ID card numbers and photographs on the voters register, Peter Otukunor said the party have discussed the issue extensively with the aspirants, and even the Electoral Commission when providing the party with the voters register do not include pictures of the voters.
"What we agreed was that those on the register will not be allowed to vote unless you provide a form of identification which could be a driver's license, a voters ID or a party ID,''he added
Six (6) NDC flagbearer aspirants petitioned the party over the printing of ballot papers and voter's register for the upcoming elections.
The six include Alban Bagbin, Goosie Tanoh, Sylvester Mensah, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Nurudeen Iddrisu, Prof Joshua Alabi who asked the party to award the contract to a trustworthy firm. According to them, some of the irregularities that occurred at the party's executive elections held on November 2018 will be prevented.
The petition was addressed to the party's National Election Commission and copied to the chairman of the NDC National Council.
They also complained that the voters register consists of a list of names without photographs, Voter ID card numbers or even party membership card numbers and these will create impersonation and unnecessary confusion on the day of voting.
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