Voter registration: NPP rebukes NDC over request for serial numbers of BVR kits

The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has criticised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for requesting the serial numbers of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits used in the ongoing Limited Voter Registration exercise.

According to the NDC, the request was made to ensure transparency during the polls.

But the Electoral Commission (EC), in a statement on May 9, said releasing the serial numbers to external parties could jeopardise the security and integrity of the electoral system and its operations.

In response to the NDC’s concerns, Haruna Mohammed, Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, in an interview on Friday, urged the NDC to trust the EC ahead of the 2024 polls, describing the request as a lazy approach.

“I think the NDC is very lazy at their work, to ask for BVR serial numbers from the EC. If you read carefully the CI, that regulates registrations in Ghana, we realise that all political parties have agents across all the 268, centres where registration happens.

“These machines are displayed, and the number of machines allocated to each centre is clearly known…and what I do know is that in all registrations that we have done, no political parties have been given serial numbers of these machines.

“But I don’t know exactly if they meant to receive these serial numbers, their agents can’t easily again get these particulars, names and, details of these machines to them,” he stated.