Claims of missing security personnel on special voting list not true – Electoral Commission

The Electoral Commission (EC) has refuted allegations that the names of more than 60% of security officers have been excluded from the voters register for the special voting.

Adam Bonaa, a security analyst on Wednesday, November 18, 2020 revealed to GhanaWeb that over sixty-percent of security personnel who will be on duty on election day risk have been disenfranchised after their names were omitted from the register for the special voting.

Though he couldn't independently verify the claims, he suggested, that the security officers are unhappy with the situation and warned of consequences if the issue is not addressed.

“Information I have picked up from credible sources within the various security agencies is that majority of the officers who will form the core of the Security Task Force and therefore are supposed to take part in the special voting don’t have their names on the register for the special voting. Between 60 to 70 percent of them have their names omitted from the electoral roll so there are agitations within the agencies”.

“Quite a number of them have called me and I have spoken to their bosses to find out what they are doing about it and they told me they have informed the EC and the EC has asked them to re-submit the names. This issue has the tendency to lower the morale of these officers who are supposed to protect ballot materials and human beings alike before and during the elections.

However, these claims by Adam Bona have been rejected by the Electoral Commission.

Dr Serebour Quarcoo, the Director of the Electoral Services at the EC said on Citi FM that there is no iota of truth in the allegations by Adam Bona.

He revealed that over 109,552 people will be taking part in the special voting exercise and that nothing can be done now with the regards to adding those whose names are missing on the register.

“I don’t think it is true. I don’t know where he got his figures. We have 109,552 people on the special voters’ list and this list includes the media and the security services so how many security services people do we have there?” he quizzed.