Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrissu, has responded to the Electoral Commission over the ongoing debate regarding the allegation of the government secretly providing Covid-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the EC when health workers are not adequately catered for.
In response to the EC’s claim, following Haruna Iddrissu’s expression of concern over the government’s misplacement of priority to provide PPEs to the EC, the Minority Leader questioned where the EC got PPEs it has provided its staff even though in their 2020 budget, they did not make provision for PPEs.
“The E.C., in its statement, alleged that they did not receive any PPE from the government. The question that the EC must answer is how it came by the PPE it claimed were enough for the intended compilation of a new voter register, which has been wildly condemned by civil society and well-meaning Ghanaians,” the Minority leader fired.
“The E.C. needed to be reminded that the Commission did not make any provision for the procurement of PPE in its 2020 budget as approved by Parliament in December 2020, since no one anticipated the pandemic at the time of the approval of the budget.”
“The Commission should tell the Ghanaian public the source of the funds used for the procurement of its PPE since they claim these were not provided by the government and these were also not provided for in their budget for 2020,” the Minority Leader asked in a statement.
Responding to the EC leadership’s claim that it has not stated anywhere that it has received PPEs from Government, he referred to what one of the leaders of the EC had said on TV.
“The E.C., in its statement, alleged that I sought to attack the integrity and mandate of the Commission as well as create an erroneous impression in the minds of the general public on the Commission’s attitude towards the COVID-19 pandemic…For the record, I did indicate at the said press conference that I was making reference to a statement made by Dr. Serebuor Quaicoo, Director of Electoral Services of the Electoral Commission,” Haruna clarified.
“Dr. Serebuor Quaicoo had indicated on Joy FM’s current affairs programme, Newsfile on Saturday, 18th April 2020 that the EC had received enough PPE from the government. Unfortunately, Dr. Serebuor had not come out to deny the assertion.”
Haruna Iddrissu advised the EC to concentrate on its mandate, saying the Commission has a lot of self-salvaging to do as it has battered its own reputation by its actions over the years.
“For instance, the integrity of the E.C. and its leadership was battered when it was forced to withdraw, on two separate occasions, the Constitutional Instrument for the conduct of the 2020 elections, due to elementary errors discovered by the Minority in the Instrument…
This exhibition of incompetence and lack of diligence and consequently, the integrity of the E.C. in the eyes of the public is not and cannot be attributable to the press conference of the Minority,” the Minority Leader jabbed the EC.