News:
June 20, 2025
Deputy Electoral Commissioner Dr. Bossman Eric Asare told Parliament on Thursday, June 19, 2025, the commission did not breach procurement laws of Ghana when the EC re-printed leaked ballot papers for two regions in the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
According to him they did not go through the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), rather they wrote to CTR on December 2, 2024, when on November 29, 2024, the leaked ballots for the Eastern and Western Region were noticed.
Majority Chief Whip Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor has an urgent question for the Electoral Commission, whether any contract was awarded to the EC for the printing and supply of ballot since the 2024 general elections and the EC answered in the affirmative.
And in his supplementary question asked if the EC would agree with him that they breach the law on procurement?
The deputy commissioner of the EC further revealed to the House that the CTR that gave them approval knew the printing House doing the printing, so they had to go to the same organisation that permitted them to engage the printing House.
“So far as we are concern, we did not breach the procurement law”.
Again, he pointed out that they met with the various political parties who were stakeholders in the 2024 general elections, had meetings with them and looking at the available time to do the re-printing.
Hence, they had to reschedule the special voting for these two regions whiles the other fourteen regions were having the special voting.
On which entity did the distribution of the ballot papers that leaked, the deputy commissioner noted that it was the EC in collaboration with the political parties and the Ghana Police Services. But it’s the sole responsibility of the EC to do the distribution.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com