The Electoral Commission (EC) has clarified that delays in printing the Notice of Poll for the December 7 general elections have been caused by errors in name spellings and issues with some political party symbols.

According to the EC in a statement issued on October 10, it said the printing of Notices of Poll for both the presidential and parliamentary elections will commence on Friday, October 11, 2024.

However, the actual printing of ballot papers will only commence after the Commission provides ballot statistics to all candidates, political parties, and printing houses.

In light of this, representatives of some political parties have raised concerns.

• Read also: Printing of Notices of Poll starts today, not Ballot Papers – EC to NDC

The Deputy Director of Elections for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Rashid Tanko Computer said that the NDC had no issues with the printing of the Notices of Poll.

He stated that the party rather had an issue with the printing of the ballot papers.

"We have no issues with the printing of the notice of polls, it’s just the corrections, which we have just done. We just closed the meeting with them, we have no issue. Our issues with them were about the printing of the ballot papers, which their initial letter sought to indicate that they wanted to go ahead with the printing of the ballot papers, which we had issues and told them that could not be the case because you don't just print ballot papers without a document, that is the satisfied voters registered, and then the statistics therein before the printing can commence," he said.

Meanwhile, Sam Korankye, a disqualified presidential aspirant for the December 7 election, has criticised the EC's decision to move forward with the printing process.

He called it a "slap in the face of democracy," accusing the Commission of acting unfairly.

“For them to go ahead and invite agents of various candidates regarding the printing of the ballot paper to the various printing houses is totally unfair and unacceptable. …I don't think this is good for the electoral commission in terms of deepening democracy and also building confidence of the people going forward to such a big election,” he said.

He further warned that he would consider legal action, potentially taking the matter to the Supreme Court.

Mr Korankye urged the EC to rectify the situation, stating, “Going ahead to print these ballot papers regardless of what is pending is totally unfair and a slap on the face and also not good for our democracy.”