The Electoral Commission (EC) has destroyed over 3.6 million ballot papers intended for both the presidential and parliamentary elections in the Eastern Region.

The exercise was carried out under strict police security and was closely monitored by the two main political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

This action follows the suspension of special voting in the said regions after reports emerged about leaked ballot papers.

Speaking to the media after the destruction of the ballots, the Eastern Regional Director of the EC, John Appiah expressed satisfaction with the process.

"You should observe for yourself that the exercise has been very successful. In fact, we brought all the parties together — the constituency executives from the NPP, NDC, and CPP — and they have all been here. They checked the seals on the ballot paper bags and confirmed that everything was intact before we offloaded them," he said.

"Now, we are burning them, and I must say, it was a successful and very cooperative process from day one. When we brought the ballot papers here, they followed us, checked the seals before we offloaded them, and I have spoken with them. They have agreed with the process, so we are happy with it. Once they are happy and have seen that it has been very successful, we can be confident in the outcome."

He continued, "The total number of papers, when counted leaf by leaf, was 1.8 million, which have been destroyed here, both for the presidential and parliamentary elections. For the Afram Plains and North regions, we have made provisions to ensure that the results are delivered promptly. We have hired speedboats to retrieve the results, and the Ghana Army is providing us with a chopper to airlift the materials and bring them back."

He added, "We are hopeful that everything will go smoothly this time, and we will receive the results as early as possible for declaration."

The NDC Eastern Regional Secretary, Jamal Korneh, noted that "We agreed that the ballot papers should be conveyed to the police station. When we got to the police headquarters today, they wanted to store them in the Zoomlion containers, but we disagreed with that. So, we brought everything here. So far, so good — we’ve been able to check all the seals, emptied all the bags, and proceeded with setting fire to the ballot papers that have been rejected by the EC".

He further criticised the EC’s handling of the situation, saying, "From day one, the EC has not been truthful or transparent with us; they have been playing games." He added, "They conceal information and make decisions without our knowledge, especially in this case. If you want to discard rejected ballot papers, at least communicate with our national executives so they can inform us officially. Instead, we received a WhatsApp message on their platform, which was not an official way of communicating."

"We will remain vigilant over the next three to four days leading up to the election," he assured.