Allegations of secret registration baseless, without merit – EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has rejected the allegations of secret registration of applicants onto the national album for elections 2024, describing them as baseless and without merit.

The election management body urged the general public to disregard the allegations, stressing that the five missing laptops by themselves cannot be used to register applicants.

This comes on the back of a group known as Election Watch Ghana at a news conference in Accra on May 20, alleged that the EC is using the missing BVRs to engage in a secret registration of applicants.

Mark Ewusi, convenor of Election Watch Ghana, underscored that the group was convinced that “…the EC’s mistake on Day two was not accidental but rather figures coming from the stolen BVRs.”

“We can firmly conclude that the stolen BVRs are in the custody of unscrupulous individuals who are their counterparts, concocting and illegally registering unqualified people with the BVRs in question,” he noted.

But the Commission, during a press conference dubbed ‘Let the Citizen Know’ on Tuesday, May 21, emphasised that the allegations are unfounded and aimed at deceiving the public.

“The attention of the Commission has been drawn to a press conference by a group called Election Watch Ghana, during which one Mark Ewusi alleged that the Electoral Commission was using stolen biometric voter registration (BVR) kits to register people secretly.

“The Commission urges the public to disregard these baseless and unfounded allegations as they are without merit…the Commission has never reported that Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits have been stolen,” Deputy Commissioner in Charge of Operations Samuel Tetteh said.

He added, “The Commission reported to the security agencies that five laptops were missing…describing the five missing laptops as BVRs is a deliberate attempt by certain groups to deceive the public.”

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Moreover, Mr Tetteh noted that political party agents at the various registration centres receive start- and end-of-day updates from the Commission in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.

According to him, this level of transparency has been crucial in maintaining the integrity of the process and the trust of the stakeholders.

Additionally, the Commission maintained that political party agents, election observer groups, the media, and accredited persons are allowed to visit the registration centres to observe the ongoing exercise.

The post Allegations of secret registration baseless, without merit – EC first appeared on 3News.

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