Member of Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Rockson-Nelson Etsi Kwami Dafeamekpor, fears Ghana’s election management body may become a “compromised referee” in the upcoming elections.
The lawmaker has reemphasised why Ghanaians should be worried over the politicisation of the Commission looking at the role it plays in Ghana’s elections and democracy as a whole.
The South Dayi Member of Parliament says he is anxious the Supreme Court has not been able to determine a matter he sent to court concerning the appointment of one Dr. Appiahene, who according to evidence available to him, is politically aligned.
Mr. Dafeamekpor, who is also a private legal practitioner, expressed the fears whilst speaking on the alleged missing biometric verification devices of the EC on the KeyPoints Saturday, March 23, 2024, on TV3.
He insisted the amalgamation of happenings within the Commission should be a cause to worry since they add up to marring the December 07 exercise.
“The politicisation of the EC is a cause to worry. As we speak I’m in court in respect of the appointment of Dr. Appiahene and I’m anxious that that matter is not determined yet and so when you add all these to these happenings, then of course you are worried that we must be careful so that the EC does not become a compromised referee for our upcoming elections,” he told host, Alfred Ocansey.
The MP further expressed worry, saying that “the EC is not being stable in terms of its decisions. Today they want to add indelible ink and, tomorrow” it wants to do the vice versa, admonishing that “they must learn to work within the rules” assigned to it to execute its constitutional mandate.
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.
“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.
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