Director of Electoral Services for the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Serebour Quaicoe says the Commission can print ballot papers for the upcoming elections without the presence of political parties.

"At every stage, the political parties are with us. It is not backed by any law. The EC can decide to do the printing without the involvement of the political parties," he explained.

Speaking on Newsfile with Samson Lardy Anyenini, Dr Serebour Quaicoe stated that the only reason political parties and the security are involved in the process is to ensure transparency.

On Friday, November 27, JoyNews monitored the burning of excess ballot papers which some sources alleged was done without representatives of other political parties, apart from the NDC.

The ballot papers were destroyed under the supervision of a policeman and an official of the National Intelligence Bureau.

But in his response, Dr Serebour Quaicoe noted that the excess number of ballot papers did not have serial numbers and if they did, it implied that it got spoilt when it was embossed.

Ahead of the 2020 general election, NDC's campaign coordinator Joshua Alabi alleged that over 150,000 excess ballots were being printed by the EC without the notice of political parties.

However, the Director of Electoral Services, insists the process being implemented by the Commission is backed by law.

He explained that a contract is given with a specific set of ballot papers needed to be printed.

"To prevent errors, excess is always printed so that at any stage when anything goes wrong there have replacements to fill in. The process is that they will first print the ballot papers with the serial numbers," he added.