EC sacks two officials for registering 12 people illegally

The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has fired two of its officials for registering people for the new voter identification cards at a secret location in Tamale.

The EC took action after noting with “grave concern acts of misconduct on the part of two temporary Registration Officials”.

Subsequently, “the Officials have been relieved of their posts pending investigations”.

The two were identified as Mumuni Abilla Yusif, 26; and Mohammad Yushaw Kongsoha, 32.

In a statement issued on Saturday, July 18, the Commission said it was working with security agencies “to ensure that the suspects are made to face the full rigorous of the law”.

The registration kit used for the alleged illegal registration has been kept in custody by the police.

“The Commission wishes to assure the general public that it will not shield any of its staff, temporary or permanent, who find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

“We call on the general public to expose acts, which are aimed at undermining the integrity of the 2020 Voters Registration Exercise,” the release added.

Background

The Northern Regional Police Command said in a statement that the two were arrested upon intelligence on July 17 at about 8 a.m.

They were EC officials stationed at the North East Gonja district in the Savanah Region at Vittin in the Tamale Metropolis.

The police recovered one Biometric Voter Registration(BVR) kit from the room of one of the suspects.

At the time of the arrests, 12 persons including 10 males and two females had been registered from 7am to 8am at Vittin, which is not a designated registration centre.

Officials of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had raised an alarm that the kit was used to register members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).