Accra, Oct. 21, GNA - The New Patriotic Party's (NPP) candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo will be on top of the ballot paper in the December 7 election, according to the balloting carried out at the Electoral Commission (EC) on Tuesday.

The second on the ballot paper will be Dr Edward Nasigrie Mahama of the People's National Convention, while Professor John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will be third on the ballot paper. Mr Emmanuel Ans ah Antwi of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) will be fourth, Mr Thomas Ward-Brew of the Democratic People's Party will be fifth, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom of the Convention People's Party will be sixth, Mr Kwamena Adjei of the Reformed Patriotic Democrats will be seventh, while Mr Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah, an independent candidate will be eighth.

The positions will be the same for parliamentary candidates, with independent candidates coming after candidates of the political parties in alphabetical order.

There were two rounds of balloting. The first round was to choose the order of picking the ballot to determine the order on the ballot paper. The order for that balloting was determined by the order in which the presidential candidates filed their papers at the EC last Thursday and Friday.

After that round of balloting, the RPD was to pick first, followed by the CPP, NDC, NPP, DFP, PNC and DPP.

Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, who picked the NPP ballots, said the top position for their candidate showed that they had moved from "asieho" (bottom of the ballot paper in 2000) to the top, adding that, this showed that they were moving forward. He said they were the first to file and the first to be on the ballot paper.

Mr Ahmed Ramadan, National Chairman of the PNC said the second position on the ballot paper confirmed their slogan of "2 Direct; Two Sure".

Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, National Organiser of the NDC, said their position on the ballot paper was "divine" since it showed the "Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit". He said they were consistent in their position of the Holy Trinity, as they picked the third position in both rounds.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said the Holy Trinity is also confirmed by the fact that this was the third time Prof. Atta Mills was contesting the presidential election and they also had three Johns in their presidential race - Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, Mr John Dramani Mahama, running mate of Prof. Mills, and former President Jerry John Rawlings. The other parties appeared uncomfortable with their positions on the ballot paper because they may be difficult to market.

The EC team was made up of Mr David Kanga, Deputy Chairman in charge of Finance and Administration, Mr Kwadwo Safo-Kantanka, Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations and Mr Albert Kofi Arhin, Director in charge of Elections. Mr Arhin told the GNA that the EC would now print a "Notice of Polls" and then print the ballot papers. The EC would also undertake a series of training programmes for the agents of the parties, security personnel, parliamentary candidates and the media on their roles in the election, he said.

Summary

The positions are as follows:

1 New Patriotic Party, NPP

2 People’s National Convention, PNC

3 National Democratic Congress, NDC

4 Democratic Freedom Party, DFP

5 Democratic People’s Party, DPP

6 Convention People’s Party, CPP

7 Reformed Patriotic Democrats, RPD

8 Independent candidates.

For Election 2004, the positions were as follows

1 People's National Convention, PNC

2 New Patriotic Party, NPP

3 National Democratic Congress, NDC

4 Convention People's Party, CPP

5 Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere, EGLE

6 Great Consolidated Popular Party, GCPP

7 Democratic People's Party, DPP

8 National Reform Party, NRP

For the 2000 elections, when the balloting first appeared, the positions were

1 Great Consolidated Popular Party, GCPP

2 Great Consolidated Popular Party, GCPP

3 National Democratic Congress, NDC

4 Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere, EGLE

5 Convention People’s Party, CPP

6 People’s National Convention, PNC

7 Democratic People’s Party, DPP

8 United Ghana Movement, UGM

9 Reform Party, RP

10 New Patriotic Party, NPP