Kumawu By-Elections: Lawyer Edudzi Tamakloe accuses EC Boss of plottting ballot stuffing

Lawyer Edudzi Tamakloe has accused the EC boss of plotting ballot stuffing in the upcoming by-elections in Kumawu constituency.

During an interview on TV3’s New Day show monitored by ModernGhana News, Lawyer Tamakloe alleged that the EC Chairperson Jean Mensa is intentionally deviating from the regulations outlined in Constitutional Instruments (CI) 127, which governs the organization of Parliamentary and Presidential primaries.

Lawyer Tamakloe raised concern about the design of the pink sheet used to record election results.

He said, “According to CI 127, the pink sheet should include a column for the number of persons verified through either the Biometric Verification Device (BVD) or facial recognition, as well as a manual verification column.”

However, Tamakloe claimed that Jean Mensa has removed the column for the number of persons verified electronically, allowing for potential ballot stuffing.

“She has put in the pink sheet the manual verification column without any column for the number of persons verified electronically. Now the end result is that, anytime you have that situation, it allows for ballot stuffing. This is because you will not have the opportunity to verify on the BVD," he explained.

He emphasized that the removal of the electronic verification column on the pink sheet does not make room for verifying voters using the BVD, noting that even the presence of polling agents would not be sufficient to ensure verification was done properly.

“Deliberately, they have decided to take the number of persons verified electronically out of the pink sheet and it’s for a purpose - to allow for ballot staffing,” he said.

He further mentioned, “Even when you have polling agents, it matters not. In fact, the CI is even the creation of Jean Mensa herself. She herself put in what the pink sheet should look like.”

According to Lawyer Tamakloe, the issue had been brought to the attention of the acting director of elections, who reported the matter to Samuel Tettey at the EC.

He said, “So we have raised this issue - I am aware the acting director of elections has bridged this issue to the level of Samuel Tettey at the EC.”

The lawyer raised questions about the EC's decision to repeat the mistake of the 2020 general elections, attributing it to attempt to rig the election in favour of the NPP candidate.

“Each time, they’ve been trying to dodge the critical question on how they have decided for the 74 polling stations in Kumawu. They’ll decide to use pink sheets that do not have the number of persons electronically verified - a mistake they committed in the 2020 general elections and have decided to repeat it…

“...the EC officials allegedly ignored addressing the critical question of why the pink sheets for the 74 polling stations in Kumawu were designed without the electronic verification column,” he questioned.

Tamakloe urged the EC to rectify the issue, expressing disappointment in repeating an old mistake.