Five opposition MPs in Ghana’s Parliament want a bi-partisan committee to thoroughly review the processes and the procedures adopted by the Electoral Commission in the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The Minority MPs also want the Committee to inquire whether the Electoral Commission introduced ballot papers that were pre-thumb-printed and bore the stamp of the commission into the system.
The sponsors of the private member’s motion are Asawase MP, Muntaka Mubarak, MP for Bolga East, Dr. Dominic Ayine, MP for Akatsi South, Bernard Ahiafor, and Buem MP, Kofi Adams and MP for Salaga South, Zuweira Ibrahimah.
Among other things, the committee is expected to establish the cause of the disturbances and electoral violence associated with the election.
The committee is also to investigate the alleged procurement breaches in the Thales contract for the Biometric Verification Devices.
In 2021, the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), to probe alleged illegal printing of excess presidential ballot papers in the 2020 general elections.
The petition, signed by the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, said persons found culpable after the probe should also be prosecuted.
“I write on behalf of the National Democratic Congress to petition your office to institute criminal investigations into and prosecute persons culpable in the illegal printing of over one million excess presidential ballots meant for the Ashanti Region at Innolink Printing press, one of the seven security printing firms contracted by the Electoral Commission to print election materials for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections,” a portion of the petition said.
The party said its petition was occasioned by the fact that there had not been any update on investigations on electoral malpractices and violence that characterised the election and voter registration exercise.
The party’s 2020 presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama also went to the Supreme Court over the elections citing several infractions, but he was unsuccessful in the Election Petition.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
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