Good move on rejected ballots EC, NCCE but…
The high incidence of rejected ballots during every national election has been of concern to many and it is a good thing that the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) have teamed up to educate the public on how to make their votes valid during the December 7 polls.
Advertisement
It is believed that rejected ballots constitute the ‘political party’ with the highest number of votes after the two major political parties - the NDC and the NPP - in all the elections held in the country since we returned to multiparty democracy.
Although that may sound absurd, statistics indicate that in the 2012 presidential polls, there were 251,720 invalid ballots, just 74,143 votes short of the 325,868 votes difference between the winner, President John Mahama of the NDC, and his closest rival, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP.
The spoilt ballots were also 80,117 more than the combined total of 171,603 garnered by the six other candidates in the presidential race.
The PPP’s Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom had 64,362 votes, the GCPP's Dr Henry Lartey got 8,223, the PNC’s Hassan Ayariga had 24,617, the CPP’s Dr Abu Sakara Forster got 20,323, the independent candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah, had 15,201, while the UFP’s Akwasi Addai Odike had 8,877 votes in the contest for the presidency.
Since the EC says it has conducted a research into the disturbing incidence of a large number of invalid ballots in each election, we believe that it will apply the findings to reduce drastically the number of spoilt ballots in the upcoming elections.
Even before the EC comes out with its findings, many believe that some of the knotty spots in the whole melee of invalid votes have to do with the mode and medium used to sensitise the masses before and during any elections.
Some have also ascribed the incidence to an ignorant electorate, confused or uneducated election officials or officials who deliberately deceive members of the electorate perceived to belong to opposing parties into folding their ballot papers the wrong way, so that the ballots are rejected during the counting.
Yet still others believe that some people cast their ballots when they are drunk, thereby making mistakes during thumb-printing and folding.
There is also a school of thought that others deliberately obliterate or deface their ballot papers when they get into the booth because they are not keen on voting for any of the candidates on the ballot paper or attempt to correct a mistake made in thumb-printing their preferred candidates after they have thumbprinted the wrong candidates.
While any or all of these reasons proffered for damaged ballots may hold true, it still stands that wasting of ballot papers does not only result in wasting of the resources used to fund the polls but also takes a lot from our electoral process.
The Daily Graphic finds it gratifying that the EC and the NCCE have begun implementing strategies, including the training of electoral officers and voter education, to reverse the trend.
We also believe that staff of both the EC and the NCCE will adopt simple languages that people in the various electoral areas identify with in educating them for a successful voting process that will see just a handful of spoilt ballots.
The high incidence of rejected ballots during every national election has been of concern to many and it is a good thing that the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) have teamed up to educate the public on how to make their votes valid during the December 7 polls.
It is believed that rejected ballots constitute the ‘political party’ with the highest number of votes after the two major political parties - the NDC and the NPP - in all the elections held in the country since we returned to multiparty democracy.
Although that may sound absurd, statistics indicate that in the 2012 presidential polls, there were 251,720 invalid ballots, just 74,143 votes short of the 325,868 votes difference between the winner, President John Mahama of the NDC, and his closest rival, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP.
The spoilt ballots were also 80,117 more than the combined total of 171,603 garnered by the six other candidates in the presidential race.
The PPP’s Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom had 64,362 votes, the GCPP's Dr Henry Lartey got 8,223, the PNC’s Hassan Ayariga had 24,617, the CPP’s Dr Abu Sakara Forster got 20,323, the independent candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah, had 15,201, while the UFP’s Akwasi Addai Odike had 8,877 votes in the contest for the presidency.
Since the EC says it has conducted a research into the disturbing incidence of a large number of invalid ballots in each election, we believe that it will apply the findings to reduce drastically the number of spoilt ballots in the upcoming elections.
Even before the EC comes out with its findings, many believe that some of the knotty spots in the whole melee of invalid votes have to do with the mode and medium used to sensitise the masses before and during any elections.
Some have also ascribed the incidence to an ignorant electorate, confused or uneducated election officials or officials who deliberately deceive members of the electorate perceived to belong to opposing parties into folding their ballot papers the wrong way, so that the ballots are rejected during the counting.
Yet still others believe that some people cast their ballots when they are drunk, thereby making mistakes during thumb-printing and folding.
There is also a school of thought that others deliberately obliterate or deface their ballot papers when they get into the booth because they are not keen on voting for any of the candidates on the ballot paper or attempt to correct a mistake made in thumb-printing their preferred candidates after they have thumbprinted the wrong candidates.
While any or all of these reasons proffered for damaged ballots may hold true, it still stands that wasting of ballot papers does not only result in wasting of the resources used to fund the polls but also takes a lot from our electoral process.
The Daily Graphic finds it gratifying that the EC and the NCCE have begun implementing strategies, including the training of electoral officers and voter education, to reverse the trend.
We also believe that staff of both the EC and the NCCE will adopt simple languages that people in the various electoral areas identify with in educating them for a successful voting process that will see just a handful of spoilt ballots.
