NDC Rejects Inclusion Of FONSTAT

The Weekly Standard can today reveal that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has raised objections with the Electoral Commission (EC) over one of the companies contracted to print the December 28th run-off ballot papers.

The objection was contained in a letter that the NDC sent to the EC early this week, a copy of which was sighted by this paper.

Sources close to the leadership of the NDC have told the Weekly Standard that the party’s objection to the company, known as FONSTAT, stems from the fact that the party has enough reason not to trust that the company would not compromise the integrity of the ballot papers.

“FONSTAT was one of the companies that the EC used to print the ballot papers for the first round of the election, and we have enough reason to believe that the security measures of the company were compromised so as to allow some ballot papers to get into wrong hands, which subsequently, we believe, found their way into stuffed ballot boxes that were meant to be used to switch ballot boxes that were actually used at specific polling stations,” one of the sources revealed.

“As we head for the run-off, there is not enough time to carry out a thorough investigation to prove or disprove our suspicions. However, we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of giving them the benefit of the doubt only for us to find out later that we have allowed ourselves to be cheated. This is the reason why we have protested the inclusion of the company among the companies contracted to print the ballot papers for the run-off,” the source stated.

The Weekly Standard learnt that FONSTAT, together with other companies, including INNOLINK, have been awarded the contract to print the ballot papers for Central, Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, and Eastern regions.