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The Majority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has appealed to the Electoral Commission not to discard the use of indelible ink for the upcoming 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Electoral Commission, as part of its reforms, has suggested abandoning the use of indelible ink in the December polls. The minority in parliament has vehemently kicked against the proposal, stating that the avoidance of the use of indelible inks could lead to overvoting.

In a sequel to the minority's position, the majority leader highlighted concerns about the potential misuse of the electoral process if indelible ink is not used.

He revealed that without indelible ink, individuals might vote in one region and then move to another to vote, thereby exploiting the lack of synchronization in the election management body’s database.

Hon. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said, “The database of the electoral commission, as far as some of us do know, doesn’t talk to one another; the database of the regions talk to themselves, so you cannot vote in Suame and then run to Offinso North to vote; you would be caught because there it is synchronized, but they don’t go beyond the regions."

“So it is possible for one person to vote in Accra and dash to Bole to cast their vote. So to the fact that the database is not talking to itself, it is important that we further guarantee any abuse of the system to resort to the use of the indelible ink. So we are appealing to the EC to reintroduce it.”

The majority leader prayed that the Electoral Commission rescind her decision to avoid the use of indelible ink in order to give the upcoming general elections some level of credibility.