The Electoral Commission has ordered a recall and reprinting of ballot papers for the Eastern and Western Regions after a leakage was detected with the initial ballot papers.

The Commission's Chairperson, Jean Mensa announced this at an emergency news conference on Sunday, December 1.

According to the Commission, this has become necessary after it was informed by National Security that a single defaced paper was taken out of Checkpoint Printing Limited Printing House.

The defaced paper was earmarked for destruction but unfortunately found its way out of the firm which has been working with the Commission since 1992.

The reprinting will be done by BuckPress and Innolink.

"As we indicated on Friday afternoon, our mission here is simple. On Friday night, the Commission was informed by national security that a single defaced ballot paper, intended for the Eastern Region, had been taken out of the printing house. I want to emphasize that only one defaced ballot paper for the presidential election in the Eastern Region was removed from the printing facility."

"The defaced ballot was identified by Checkpoint, which is responsible for supervising and observing the National Investigation Bureau, National Security, the police, as well as political party agents and Electoral Commission (EC) staff. It is important to note that this single defaced ballot had been earmarked for destruction by the company handling the printing. However, for some reason, it found its way out of the printing house."

As a result, the Commission has announced the suspension of the special voting exercise which is due to start tomorrow, Monday, for the two regions whose ballot papers were printed by Checkpoint Printing Limited Printing House.

The two regions will have their special voting on Thursday, December 5, before the general election on Saturday, December 7.

It says the security features of ballots for the two regions will be enhanced to differentiate them from the ones that have gone out. The Commission said the total recall is to ensure the integrity of the election. It says all parties and contestants in the election have been informed of the development and have agreed to the recall and reprinting.

"Therefore, the ballots for both the Eastern and Western Regions will be destroyed by burning, and new ballots will be printed starting today. It is important to note that, in order to ensure the integrity of the ballot papers, the Commission will introduce new security features on the reprinted ballots for both regions. Additionally, the serial numbers for the ballots in both regions will be revised to clearly distinguish the newly printed ballots from those that were previously printed.

"We believe that these measures will ensure the security of the ballots and create a marked difference between the ballots that have already been printed and those that are about to be printed."

Before this incident, the EC similarly reprinted ballot papers for Ahafo and the Volta Region due to some errors with the initial printing.

The Commission has also detected some shortfall in the ballot papers dispatched to some regions and is working to fix the anomaly.