How NDC uncovered millions of illegal ballot papers printed for 2020 polls

Former President John Dramani Mahama has been explaining to some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), how the party agents uncovered an alleged printing of additional ballot papers by the Electoral Commission (EC) for the 2020 elections.

Mahama, who was the flagbearer for the NDC in the 2020 elections, had earlier spoken about the alleged printing of the ballot papers during his ‘Thank You’ tour in the Western Region when he addressed the Divisional Chief of Prestea Himan, Nana Nteboah Prah.

According to him, “More than one million extra ballot papers were printed, which the EC claimed happened by mistake but on the day of the elections, some of the more than one million extra ballot papers had already been secretly thumb-printed in favour of the NPP.”

“And, so, all these things dented the credibility of the polls and caused an embarrassment.”

Two years after the elections in 2020, the former President has been explaining how the NDC agents discovered the additional printing of ballot papers when he spoke with the United States Chapter of the NDC at the Bentley University on Sunday, March 27, 2022.

He said, “We have all done elections before and at the printing press, all the political parties are supposed to send agents to the printing press. We sit there from the time they start printing until we finish. When they finish, we all tally how many ballots they were asked to print, we all look at the numbers and everything and if we are satisfied then all the agents sign a certificate of completion to say that we are satisfied, that it tallies with the number you were asked to print.

“And so, we did that at the printing press and left. But one of our agents had to go back, he was going to look for something, he had left his laptop bag and so he was going to look for it, only for him to see millions of ballot papers being printed.”

John Dramani Mahama continued: “When he asked why they were printing extra ballot papers, they said the EC had asked them to print. Out of frustration, they said in case there was a second round. But seven people will not go for the second round, ballot papers for a second round is only for two people, the top two. No proper explanation on why those ballot papers were printed, were given.

“Some of the people were seen later carrying ballot papers and we reported them to the police. Up to date, nobody has been charged or prosecuted for carrying those extra ballot papers.

“These are the things that happened in the elections and so we thought the elections weren’t free and fair and so we went to the Supreme Court. One, to test our legal rights and then secondly, to also calm the atmosphere.”

“The atmosphere was quite charged, a few of our people took to the streets, there was a threat of violence, and we didn’t want to go down that path and so it was better to use what the constitution has given us. Once we filed the suit I noticed that it calmed everybody and of course, we went and got 7:0 on every issue that we raised,” he stressed.