Innolink Ghana denies NPP’s claim of attempt to compromise electoral process
Innolink Ghana Limited, the company contracted by the Electoral Commission (EC) to print electoral materials for the December polls, has denied the allegation by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that it had given out a presidential ballot plate to a private individual to be taken out of the premises of the printing house.
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According to the company, the allegations by the NPP were false and not based on any factual evidence.
Last Monday, the NPP said that it had uncovered what it described as a grand scheme by the EC to rig this year’s elections using the printing companies, with specific reference to Innolink Ghana.
According to the NPP’s Director of Elections, Mr Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, the party had uncovered a major security breach at Innolink for the printing of ballot papers for the Greater Accra and the Volta regions.
But at a press conference in Accra yesterday, the Business Development Manager of Innolink Ghana, Mr Kingsley Kofi Addo, said no plate of the presidential ballot was given out to any officer during the time of printing, as claimed by the NPP.
Falsehood
“We wish to state that our own preliminary investigations have established that no officer of Innolink took the plate of the presidential ballot out of the premises during the printing process,” he said.
To prove its innocence and further dismiss the NPP’s claims, some officials of the company were made to show some of the plates for the printing of the ballot papers to the press before final destruction today.
“Indeed, all the plates for the presidential ballots are intact but they will be destroyed in the presence of party representatives and the security on November 24, 2016, an indication that nobody can even have contact with the plates,” he added.
Mr Addo explained that last Monday, Innolink was approached by Aerovote Ghana Limited to assist it with the exposure of one printing plate for the printing of statement of polls, noting that the plate in question was black.
“Aerovote’s contact with us was necessitated by the fact that it encountered some technical challenges with the exposure of its plate. So as the company with the ability to assist in that regard, we provided the needed help and the officer left afterwards,” he stated, stressing that it was that interaction that the NPP official saw and raised red flags.
No breach
He said the company, at no point in time, gave any of the plates out to any official, hence the allegation that the electoral process might be breached as a result of what the NPP was saying was unfounded and speculative.
“Our activities are always supervised by the EC and other security agencies, in addition to the representatives of the various political parties. So under no circumstance can the printing process be breached,” he said.
He further indicated that the company had a reputation and credibility to protect and was also a key stakeholder in Ghana’s elections and gave an assurance that it would never, at any point, do anything untoward to mar the electoral process.
Mr Addo also stated that even though employees of the company might have their political affiliations, they worked professionally in the interest of Mother Ghana, adding that they could not be influenced by any political party for any reason whatsoever.