New Voters’ Register: Mass Action Committee insists BVR kits are obsolete

The Mass Action Committee is insisting that the current Biometric Verification Registration kits are obsolete, a position earlier taken by the electoral commission of Ghana.

At a press conference, the Mass Action Committee described the conclusion of the Inter-party resistance against new voters register as a conclusion resulting from either lack of information, excessive information or mischief.

Corroborating their assertion, the Mass Action Committee cited a letter written by HSB Identification B.V, manufacturers of the BVRs to Supertech Ghana Limited (STL), vendors of the BVRs, on May 18, 2018, which implied that there were no parts of the various components of the kits that could be repaired. The said letter further stated that for the purposes of availability, maintainability, and compatibility, new BVRs should be purchased.

The Mass Action Committee, therefore, believes that the content of this letter defeats the claims by the Inter-party Resistance against new voters register therefore urging the Electoral Commission to go ahead to conduct new voters roll.

Executive Secretary of Mass Action Committee, Atik Mohammed, revealed that the EC’s decision to procure the new equipment will rather save the country an amount of 18,354,500 dollars. According to him, this also defeats the arguments of those rising costs as a reason for their opposition to the compilation of the new voter's register.

He stated that in 2018, the STL submitted a proposal for enhancement of the biometric voters register to the EC at a unit cost of USD 5,983 whereas USD 3,465 was the proposed price for BVR refurbishment.

A comparison of that to the procurement of new BVR kits at a cost of USD 3,000 proves less than the proposed amount for the refurbishment, Mr. Atik noted.

He, therefore, described mischievous for anyone to suggest that the EC was engaged in wasteful spending and causing financial loss to the country.