The Ghana Police Service has explained the circumstances surrounding the broken seal of an electoral material bag in Koforidua, Eastern Region.
A video shared earlier on social media showed a broken seal on one of the brown electoral bags containing ballot papers meant for the Nkawkaw constituency in the upcoming election, raising concerns about the credibility of the ballot papers.
However, the police clarified that the seal was broken due to “packing and unpacking” of the bags.
The statement reads:
The Ghana Police Service wishes to inform the public that an incident involving the broken seal of one electoral material bag in Koforidua, intended for distribution to one of the constituencies within the Eastern Region, has been successfully resolved.
It has been revealed that when the bags were removed from the armoury, one of the seals was found to be off. It has been established that this occurred as a result of the packing and unpacking of the bags.
The broken seal has been found and the contents of the bag have been confirmed to be intact by the stakeholders, including the Electoral Commission and representatives of the political parties who witnessed the incident.
This clarification follows the Electoral Commission’s announcement of ballot paper shortages in five constituencies in the Volta Region.
In a statement dated Thursday, 28th November, signed by Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, the commission listed the affected areas as Keta, Ketu North, Ho Central, Hohoe, and Ho West constituencies. The EC noted that the shortfalls would be printed by Acts Commercial printing house in Accra, with two representatives from each political party and presidential candidate monitoring the process.