Care for Free and Fair Elections Ghana (CARE Ghana) has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to put in place measures to curb the surge in rejected ballots during Ghana’s national elections.
In a statement by CARE Ghana, it averred that since the beginning of the fourth republic, records from the Electoral Commission (EC) shows that, one million four hundred and ninety-eight thousand and eighty-five (1,498,085) ballots have been rejected in eight national elections. This, it says, indicates that voters have been unable to cast their ballots the right way, making it tough for the choice of the electorate to be known.
“Care for Free and Fair Elections Ghana (CARE Ghana) calls on the Electoral Commission (EC) to put in place measures to curb the surge in rejected ballots in Ghana’s national elections. This precipitates the growing concern about the surge in ballot papers rejected in national elections”.
CARE Ghana
According to CARE Ghana, irrespective of the progress made by the introduction of reforms, rejected ballots continue to pose a threat to electoral advancement and Ghana’s quest for democratic consolidation. Occasionally, it stated that these rejected ballots amounts to colossal percentages of the votes in excess of the total number of votes garnered by all the smaller political parties.
“For instance, 149,813, 111,108, and 119,372 ballots were rejected in 1992, 1996 and in 2000 elections respectively, while in the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 elections, rejected ballots were 188,123; 205,643, 243,280 and 167,349 respectively”.
CARE Ghana
Citing an example, CARE Ghana disclosed that during the 2020 elections for instance, 313,397 rejected ballots were recorded, thereby causing a huge financial loss of GHC14,116,967 to the State. It noted that rejected ballots recorded in the 2020 Presidential Race was higher than ever in terms of absolute figures.
“Friedrich Ebert Stiftung reports that, rejected ballots in the 2004 elections constitute 2.13% of 8,625,785 total votes cast, far in excess of the 165,375 votes constituting 1.9% Dr. Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention (PNC) garnered. Had it not been for these rejected ballots, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) could have won the first round of the 2008 elections”.
CARE Ghana
EC and NCCE must educate voters
CARE Ghana posited that as a voting right organization and advocate, it is their considered view that there should be effective collaboration between the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to provide proper public education which will improve electorates’ ability to vote and vote well.
It called for the abolishment of the use of ink in voting to eliminate the incidence of rejected ballots occasioned by spillages or inaccurate folding of the ballot sheet.
“If the rejected ballots were a political party, they could boast of a steady increase in popularity ahead of the smaller parties”.
CARE Ghana
According to CARE Ghana, since Ghana returned to electoral democracy, votes cast by some electorates have been rejected in elections and rejected ballots continue to maintain its position representing the third force behind NDC and NPP.
“In some instances, these rejected ballots could be mischievously added to the votes of political parties that lost elections to make them winners. Ghana’s elections in 2024 is critical, hence, every ballot cast by the electorates must counted”.
CARE Ghana
