IMANI Africa, a Ghanaian policy think tank, has strongly disputed the Electoral Commission’s (EC) recent statement regarding the discovery of 10 obsolete biometric verification devices (BVDs) at a recycling company in Madina.
The EC had explained that these devices were legally auctioned and had been acquired before the 2012 elections.
However, IMANI Africa has called the EC’s statement “lies, half-truths, and pure fantasies.”
In a statement released on April 27, 2024, IMANI Africa questioned the EC’s claims, particularly the number of BVDs auctioned off and the disposal of the remaining devices.
The think tank highlighted the EC’s previous assurance of having a “2 BVDs per polling station” policy, which would have resulted in over 70,000 devices in stock.
They also pointed out the EC’s assertion that they did not use any of the pre-existing devices in the 2020 mass voter registration exercise, despite video evidence suggesting otherwise.
IMANI Africa expressed concerns over the EC’s leadership and the transparency of their actions, stating that there seems to be a pattern of misconduct and misinformation.
The think tank urged the media to investigate further and seek answers to the questions raised, as the credibility of the electoral process in Ghana is at stake.
“The EC’s press statement was full of lies, half-truths, and pure fantasies. The EC says that only 10 biometric verification devices (BVDs) were “auctioned”. And that they “found their way” into a recycling plant. The obvious questions that the media ought to ask are a) Before the EC jettisoned the existing system, it had told Parliament that it had implemented a “2 BVDs per polling station” policy and therefore had more than 70,000 BVDs in stock.”
“Then in 2020, it proceeded to buy a brand-new set of biometric voter registration (BVR) kits with corresponding BVD kits and swore (despite video evidence collected by Bright Simons) that they never used any of the pre-existing devices in the 2020 mass voter registration exercise. Why then did they auction only 10 out of the over 70,000 devices? Why “10”, and not 5, 100, or 1000?”
“How have the remaining tens of thousands of devices been disposed of? Ghanaians who have been paying attention to the EC’s strange conduct under the current leadership know that the EC admitted to have lost some BVRs recently, but when pushed it insisted that they were only five in number. There is a clear pattern here. What exactly is going on?”
