Coronavirus: ASEPA threatens to petition WHO over EC, NIA postures

Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has threatened to petition the World Health Organisation (WHO) over Ghana’s Electoral Commission’s (EC) refusal to postpone a scheduled compilation of a new voter roll in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic outbreak in the country.

Ghana’s Electoral Commission has said it will go ahead with the new voter registration exercises despite the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country but will announce a new date in due course.

The National Identification Authority also says the Ghana card registration ongoing in the Eastern region will not be cancelled.

But in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Mensah Thompson, ASEPA noted that it had “taken key notice of the recklessness of the National Identification Authority (NIA) also defying all Public Health warnings to continue their registration exercise in some parts of the Country.

“These actions by the Electoral Commission and the NIA are in total violation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols instituted to truncate the spread of the Coronavirus.”

According to ASEPA, “warnings of a National Outbreak are imminent and loud to ignore” considering the fact that Ghana has recorded seven cases of COVID-19 and the victims had made contacts with several others who are under self-quarantine or cannot be traced.

ASEPA warned that in the coming days, “it will send an official petition to the WHO, reporting Ghana's new directive to them and how Ghana may be a Global risk to the containment of the virus."

“As new infections begin to drop globally, Ghana can present a real danger of a global reinfection or a possible pandemic if it continues on this path and fail to break the spread cycle when all other countries have done so," the statement said adding that "a copy of this petition would also be presented to the IMF and the World Bank as well, requesting them not to vote any resources out of the over USD83billlion they have allocated to support developing countries to Ghana as we have not done much to deserve it.”

ASEPA is of the view that the EC, NIA and by extension the government do not have the public health safety of the people at heart.