The National Coordinator of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), Albert Arhin, has said the Coalition has not been out on all issues boiling at the quarters of the Electoral Commission (EC) because they may not have the full facts on them.
According to him, the CODEO cannot be lambasting the EC when they lack full merit of the pertaining issue, a situation he says would make it embarrassing if they attempt criticising.
Speaking on Hot Issues with Keminni Amanor Sunday, June 02, 2024, on TV3, Mr. Arhin noted that they have not been critical on the brawl between the Commission and the NDC, allegations of procurement breaches raised by IMANI-Africa, the missing BVDs as well as BVRs that have not been returned because the facts is the rule of the game.
“If we are not coming out to criticise or maybe lambast them, it may be because we don’t have the facts, sometimes,” he stated.
He continued that, if they do not have the facts to go in and criticise, “it will be very embarrassing when you don’t have an insight to something and then you just go in there to criticise.”
According to him, “when it is ready to criticise the EC, we do.”
EC and IMANI brawl
Civil Society Organisation (CSO) IMANI-Africa, has been in arms length with the Electoral Commission concerning the procurement of BVDs and BVRs.
IMANI had said the amount the Commission claimed it spent in procuring the BVDs and BVRs were an outright falsehood.
The Commission, which was displeased with the development, accused IMANI of spearheading “persistent misinformation” to the public.
The EC in a statement signed by its Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation, Fred Tetteh, urged the public to disregard statements from Bright Simons and his colleagues at IMANI about the EC’s matters.
Mr Tetteh also highlighted several accusations by the CSO in 2020 including the amount that IMANI claimed the Commission spent in procuring BVDs and BVRs which the EC claimed to be an outright falsehood.
He stated that such statements “are false and misleading.”
However, in a rebuttal, IMANI in a statement touted its principles of carrying out a thorough investigation before publishing any report, as such, it found the earlier statement by the EC dangerous and surprising.
“We were not prepared for the sheer mendacity, audacity, and shamelessness of the EC’s response to our colleague. The EC’s press statement was full of lies, half-truths, and pure fantasies,” portions of the statement read.
IMANI Africa stood by its Honourary Vice President, Bright Simons, and insisted that all the accusations he levelled against the EC were factual.
