EC Using COVID-19 As Cover-up – Asiedu Nketia

Thu, 26 Mar 2020

Politics

EC Using COVID-19 As Cover-up – Asiedu Nketia

THU, 26 MAR 2020 5

General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia says the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to suspend its scheduled registration exercise is not as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

According to him, the Commission is not just ready for the exercise.

The EC says it suspended the planned exercise initially scheduled for April 18, 2020, because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to journalists after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Wednesday, the EC's Director of Electoral Services, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, said the commission is collaborating with health experts to decide on a more favourable date depending on the prevalence rate of the virus.

“We had planned to do the registration on the [18th of April] but because of the pandemic, we can't do it on the 18th so we are observing what is happening around Ghana and the globe,” Mr. Quaicoe told the press.

But speaking on Eyewitness News, the General Secretary of the NDC said the use of COVID-19 as a reason to call off the exercise is just a cover-up.

To him, the real reason why the exercise cannot come on as planned is because the equipment needed for the registration had delayed.

“We told them that the registration exercise was not going to be possible on the 18th of April even before the outbreak of COVID, because of the procurement of equipment and all the others. The couldn't have arrived in the country before 18th so we told them that it wasn't going to be possible so they have just found a convenient excuse under COVID and they are using it as a cover. The actual reason is not about COVID at all, they are simply not ready. According to their procurement agreement, the first consignment of the equipment even in the situation where there was no COVID was not going to enter the country before the 18th and so it is just poor planning so they should not hide under any COVID because other activities of the commission have been ongoing on the field.”

The EC however, did not mention a new date for the compilation of the new electoral roll since the new date was going to be dependent on how long the Coronavirus pandemic lasts.