EC dispatches ballot papers for December polls

The Electoral Commission (EC) at the weekend started the regional distribution of ballot papers for both the presidential and parliamentary elections slated for December 7.
     In a an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday, Mr Albert Kofi Arhin, EC Director of Elections, explained that the political parties' representatives witnessed the regional distribution – presidential ballot papers on Saturday and parliamentary on Sunday - and appealed to party executives to inform their regional executives to monitor the exercise.
     Mr Arhin said party officials were allowed to follow the materials from the publishing houses to the EC warehouses and other distribution points but the cost involved should be borne by them.
     The GNA, on a visit to the Ghana Publishing Corporation and other authorised companies printing the ballot papers, found officials and party agents busily checking their final records.
     Agents of some of the seven political parties contesting Election 2008 pitched camp at the premises of the printing houses to observe and check every process along the line of printing, checking, arrangement and packaging.
     The EC allows political parties to add their own seal to the package.
     Some of the party representatives in an interview with GNA expressed satisfaction with the printing, security measures and efficiency of personnel of the publishers.
     The printing of ballot papers for the December elections was amidst tight security as the Electoral Commission stepped up preparations for the election.
     Representatives of the contesting parties joined a team of security men from the Bureau of National Investigations, the Police Panther Unit, EC and security men of the publishing houses for the exercise to monitor the printing.
     The order of presidential candidates on the ballot papers will be according to the draw carried out by the EC.
     The presidential candidates and how they would be on the ballot paper are the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (New Patriotic Party); Dr Edward Nasigrie Mahama (People's National Convention) and Professor John Evans Atta Mills (National Democratic Congress).
     The vote will see the successor of President John Agyekum Kufuor, who ends his second four-year term on January 6.
     Mr Emmanuel Ansah Antwi of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) will be fourth, Mr Thomas Ward-Brew of the Democratic People's Party will be fifth, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom of the Convention People's Party will be sixth, Mr Kwamena Adjei of the Reformed Patriotic Democrats will be seventh, while Mr Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah, the independent candidate, will be eighth.
    The ballot paper will include the names and photographs of the candidates and their party symbols.
     Meanwhile the Greater Accra Region has taken delivery of a total of 2,795,525 ballot papers including 10 per cent extra to cater for the region's 2,515,004 registered voters, Mr Mohammed Addoquaye, Regional Director, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.
GNA