The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has issued a statement warning that the Electoral Commission (EC) was Illegally deleting voters’ data of the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) used for the December 7, 2020, general elections.
According to the NDC in a statement released today, the directive to deactivate the BVDs was given by one Dr. Yaw Ofori Adjei.
“It has come to the attention of the National Democratic Congress that the Electoral Commission through Dr. Yaw Ofori Adjei has directed that all biometric devices used in the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections should be deactivated,” read the statement signed by Elvis Afriyie-Anktrah, the Director of Elections of the NDC.
“This directive is illegal because Regulation 47 (3) of CI 127 states that ‘The Commission shall, subject to the provisions of these Regulations, (a) retain for a year, documents forwarded to the Commission; and (b) destroy the documents after a year unless otherwise directed by a court.’ This implies that unless otherwise directed by a court of competent jurisdiction, all records related to elections must be retained and preserved for a period of one year.”
The NDC is convinced that the deactivation was ordered because the EC was trying to cover its tracks in an election that it has been accused widely of rigging for the incumbent party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“It is public knowledge that we in the NDC have disputed the election results. We, therefore, view this illegal directive to deactivate all biometric devices as a deliberate attempt to destroy evidence related to the non-verification of voters in the elections. We wish to serve notice that this directive is illegal and constitutes an electoral offence punishable, upon conviction, by two years imprisonment or five hundred penalty units or both,” Afriyie-Ankrah fired.
A few days ago, Whatsup News reported how Whistleblowers from the EC have disclosed that the top hierarchy of the Commission had instructed polling station officers to delete all the data on the machines.
The erased data will essentially erase all traces of the dispute that the declared President-Elect Akufo Addo did not win the Presidential elections, but the numbers were manipulated for him to win.
Whatsup News has seen videos provided by the whistleblowers deactivating the BVD machines per the instructions from the Jean Mensah-led EC.
In one of the videos, a polling station with some 300 verified voters simply erased the data. The whistleblower captured the entire process of erasure in the videos supplied.
On a Whatsapp group of polling station officers, one of them issued the instruction for the data deactivation, saying: “We are deactivating the BVDs right now. The order came from the HQ that all devices be deactivated so the number of voters won’t be known”.
After the EC was fingered for deliberately cooking the election results that systematically caused the win of the incumbent President Akufo Addo, it figures presented on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, by the EC boss Jean Mensah as a basis for declaring Akufo Addo as president, were faulty, saying she “inadvertently” made that mistake.
“The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission inadvertently used 13,433,573 as the total valid votes cast. The total valid votes cast is 13, 119, 460,” the EC said in a statement issued today, December 10, 2020.
In its defence, the EC claimed the “inadvertent” mistake would not have changed any of the outcomes of the elections, but experts and mathematicians have already torn into the EC, saying if the so-called inadvertent mistake was put in proper perspective, President Akufo Addo would not have secured the 51.96% that he reportedly scored to become president.
Indeed, several arithmetic scenarios prove that if the EC had not been stingy with the truth, the President-elect would have only secured about 49%, which will be short of the 50% + 1 legal threshold for being declared President.