State Source Of funding For PPE – Haruna Iddrisu Challenges EC

Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu says he stands by his claim that government has allocated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the government.

This follows the EC’s denial that it had received PPE from the government.

Mr. Iddrisu in a statement said he only reiterated the Director of Elections at the EC , Dr. Serebuor Quaicoe’s claim.

“For the record, I did indicate at the said Press Conference that I was making reference to a statement made by Dr. Serebuor Quaicoo, Director of Electoral Services of the Electoral Commission.Dr. Serebuor Quaicoo had indicated on Joy FM's current affairs programme, Newsfile on Saturday, 18th April 2020 that the EC had received enough PPEs from Government.

“Unfortunately, Dr. Serebuor had not come out to deny the assertion. The E.C. in its Statement alleged that they did not receive any PPEs from Government. The question that the EC must answer is how it came by the PPEs it claimed were enough for the intended compilation of a new Voters Register, which has been wildly condemned by Civil Society, and well-meaning Ghanaians.”

The Minority Leader further challenged the Commission to disclose to Ghanaians the source of funds for the procurement of PPE if it insists government made no allocation.

“The Commission should tell the Ghanaian public the source of the funds used for the procurement of its PPEs since they claim these were not provided by Government and these were also not provided for in their budget for 2020.”

The Tamale North MP also clarified that his attacks on the EC's integrity are “issues of public knowledge and cannot be attributable to the Press Statement by the Minority Caucus in Parliament.”

The EC has been under fire over its attempts to discard its old voter management system and procure a new system which will among other things have a facial recognition ability.

The EC is also seeking to compile a new electoral roll.

The commission says it wants the electoral roll used on the election day to be more credible and efficient than the existing one which was used for the 2016 election.

It has thus moved to procure a new Biometric Voter Management System (BVMS) to better address verification challenges that could occur during elections.

The process to compile a new roll has currently been suspended because of the pandemic.

---citinewsroom