South Dayi lawmaker, Rockson-Nelson Etsi Kwami Dafeamekpor, is alleging that the Electoral Commission (EC) is refusing to reveal to Ghanaians the contents of the computers that are missing from its outfit in order not to create anxiety.
He has questioned the relevance of the machines at the Commission’s office if it claims they contained no data.
The Member of Parliament argues the computers were in the EC’s office to contain data “for purposes of your work and they are missing and we are asking you say they contain nothing. Why then do you have them as laptops?”
“These are working machines, they contain data. They don’t want to admit that these laptops contain data because they think that everybody will become apprehensive and that’s the fact,” he said on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, March 23, 2024.
The EC debunked claims by the Minority in Parliament that seven of its Biometric Verification Devices (BVD) are missing.
The Minority Caucus raised concerns about the stolen BVD machines on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, with the Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, calling on the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to promptly investigate the matter.
The opposition expressed the fear that the stolen biometric devices could have dire repercussions on the upcoming December 7, 2024, general elections.
“The Electoral Commission confirms that seven biometric devices are indeed missing. I urge the CID and the Ghana Police Service to immediately issue a statement giving us details of their investigations so far,” Dr. Ato Forson said.
However, the EC reacting to the matter in a press conference on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, said none of its biometric verification device had gone missing.
The Commissioner in charge of Operations of the Commission, Samuel Tettey, who addressed the press conference said, only five of the EC’s laptops are missing.
For all, all the biometric verification devices are well secured and protected.
He explained that the missing laptops do not have any sensitive information on them, stressing that the stolen laptops will not impact the integrity of the 2024 elections.
Election 2024: Missing laptops will not compromise integrity of polls – EC
“To set the records straight, the commission recently undertook routine servicing of its biometric voter registration kits. It was during this maintenance that we discovered the theft of five laptops from the biometric voter registration kits not seven BVD as erroneously stated,”Mr. Tettey indicated.
