In an X post, Dafeamekopr said “The EC has been engaged in 1 Day, 1 Lie project so far. The lies keep changing every day. From the initial story of BVDs not missing to agreed lost of BVDs to Stolen BVDs to now auctioned BVDs to scrap dealers.”
He contended that the EC has at one instance denied the absence of the BVDs, while at another, they affirm the devices have indeed been located.
Dafeamekpor responded following criticisms from the policy think tank, IMANI Africa, who labeled the Electoral Commission’s statement regarding the uncovering of 10 obsolete BVDs at a recycling company in Madina as replete with falsehoods, partial truths, and outright fabrications.
The Commission had asserted that these devices were lawfully auctioned and procured before the 2012 elections.
IMANI challenges EC on BVDs
In a statement issued on April 27, 2024, IMANI Africa challenged the EC’s assertions, especially regarding the quantity of BVDs sold at auction and the handling of the remaining devices.
It said :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?”
It added: “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?”
EC explains outdated BVDs
The EC revealed in a statement that outdated BVDs, obtained prior to the 2012 elections, were utilized in the 2019 District Level Elections (DLE) by the current Commission.
Despite recommendations from the Managers of the Commission’s Biometric Infrastructure, advising against it due to the devices being at the end of their lifespan, the previous administration had planned to refurbish these obsolete devices for the 2018 Referendum and the 2019 DLE.
However, the current Commission canceled this refurbishment plan and instead chose to procure new equipment.
To ensure efficient resource utilization and maintain the integrity of electoral processes, the Commission opted to replace the outdated 2012 equipment with new equipment and infrastructure.
Addressing allegations of improper disposal for recycling, the Commission asserted that the auction was conducted transparently, with proceeds duly deposited in the Consolidated Fund.
