MTN Ghana prepaid cards used in political campaign

­MTN Ghana has been caught in a political fuss after PrePay top-up cards were distributed which seemed to be promoting a political candidate for the forthcoming Presidential elections.

Scratch cards, similar to MTN recharge vouchers with the image of Nana Akuffo-Addo, the NPP presidential Candidate on them, have distributed throughout the country.

MTN stated that the production and sale of the scratch cards were done without the Company’s consent, and that their scratch card production suppliers had not printed any scratch cards for such purposes. MTN has taken steps to investigate and ensure that its brand is not used outside the legal commitments to subscribers and clients.

MTN, as an organization is politically neutral and says that it remains committed to working with all stakeholders in developing Ghana’s Democracy. In this regard, MTN in November this year, presented a comprehensive support package to the Electoral Commission worth GHC¢239,050 (US$207,870). This package included handsets, starter packs, modems and airtime to facilitate communication between election officials and indeed the general public prior to, during and after the elections.

Additionally, MTN made available to all the political parties short codes to facilitate the electoral process.

MTN also had to assure its subscribers that it has also not given customers numbers to any political party to enable the party to use subscribers’ private numbers to lobby for votes.

Ghana’s presidential election will be decided on the 28th Dec, in a run-off between the two leading contenders after neither won over half the vote in the first round.

Source: Cellular News