Pay us or forget exhibition exercise – Aggrieved officials caution EC over arrears

The voters exhibition exercise could be hanging in the balance after some personnel who were contracted by the Electoral Commission (EC) for its voters registration exercise have vowed to not show up at the exhibition centres, citing the commission’s failure to fulfil its financial obligation as the reason.

According to the furious persons who were officials for the voters registration exercise held between June and July, the EC promised that monies owned them would be paid by end of August. To their dismay, the commission is yet to honour the pledge, neither has it been communicated to them the reason for the delay.

In July, some registration officials accused the EC of cajoling them into accepting to serve as officers at various registration centres with the promise of giving them appreciable remuneration only to be disappointed weeks into the exercise.

According to the dissatisfied officer, they expected better figures considering how they have had to risk their lives at a time coronavirus is fast-spreading.

After a GhanaWeb publication on the concerns raised, the EC in a memo to Regional Directors stated the approved rates for various categories of officials and instructed strict compliance. As evident in the memo, Laminators are expected to be paid an amount of GH¢75 per day while Data Entry Clerk and Registration Officers are to be paid GH¢90 and GH¢100 per day respectively.

The EC also noted that monies have been allocated to cater for the transportation fares of officials.

But more than a month after the registration exercise, the personnel are yet to be paid. Some of them told GhanaWeb they borrow monies from colleagues during the registration exercise and cannot repeat the act when they are being “treated unfairly”.

The EC has set Friday, September 18 to 25 as the period for the exhibition of the recently compiled register. This, according to the Commission, is in accordance with 23(1) of C.I.91 of the Public Elections Regulations 2016.

It will be conducted at all polling stations throughout the country. The week-long exercise will run from 7.00am to 6.00pm each day, including Saturday and Sunday.