The Founding President and the Chief Executive Officer of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Franklin Cudjoe has urged Parliament and the Ministry of Finance to scrutinize the proposed budget expenditure of the Electoral Commission of Ghana ahead of the 2024 general elections.
The leader of the policy think tank, reacting to the news of the missing of some biometric machines belonging to the Electoral Commission in a Facebook post on Wednesday, March 20, expressed grave concerns over the Commission’s handling of the situation, accusing the leadership of the Commission of lack of transparency and accountability.
“Ghana’s Electoral Commission is at its prancing and pranking best again. Having earned the dubious accolade of ‘ Voting mafioso’ for clandestinely disenfranchising my people in Santrokofi Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi on the eve of the last election in 2020.
“l was warming up to their recent calmness in accommodating sensible views of political parties on issues such as the use of indelible ink and closing polls at 5 pm instead of the jocular and amateurish contrary views they held. I knew something wasn’t quite right with the EC’s turnaround. It was just not in their DNA to be this graceful”.
Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President IMANI Africa
Mr Cudjoe, who has been a vocal critic of the Electoral Commission further accused the Commission of engaging in clandestine activities, including rigging procurement processes and misappropriating funds during the previous elections.
He strongly asserted that during the 2020 general elections, the Electoral Commission allegedly discarded existing biometric machines worth millions of dollars and opted for new machines under a very questionable process.
According to him, the procurement of the new machines by the Electoral Commission ahead of the 2020 general elections left the country with a total cost of $150m which according to him the International Monetary Fund Executive Director to Ghana has affirmed contributed to the country’s economic woes.
EC Accused Of Wasteful Spending
Furthermore, Franklin Cudjoe, the Chief Executive Officer of the policy think tank, IMANI Centre for Policy and Education posited that the Electoral Commission’s claim of missing biometric machines is merely a pretext to justify what he described in his view as a “wasteful spending”.
He questioned why the Electoral Commission failed to report the missing biometric voter machines to the Police until it appeared in Parliament on March 19 for questioning.
The Founding President of IMANI Africa concluded his remarks by underscoring the need for Parliament and the Finance Ministry to exercise caution and not to be swayed by the Electoral Commission’s purported crisis, which he believes could be exploited to secure unnecessary procurement contracts.
The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has come under intense scrutiny following reports of missing biometric voter machines, with some Ghanaians expressing concerns about the integrity of the electoral process and raising suspicions of potential financial mismanagement within the Commission.
The development has also reignited long-standing grievances against the Commission, with the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress calling for a thorough investigation into the matter.
The party’s Director of Elections and IT, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, vehemently posited that the missing biometric machines could compromise the integrity of the December 7 polls and further undermine the country’s democratic process.
The controversy stems from a recent parliamentary inquiry where the Electoral Commission of Ghana disclosed that some biometric voter machines had gone missing.
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