Boamah Urges fair Probe into Missing EC BVR Kits

by Wisdom K.E Hammond · March 22, 2024

The Director of Elections and IT for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edward Omane Boamah, has urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct a comprehensive, impartial, and independent investigation into the missing Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits to ensure a free and fair election.

The NDC minority in Parliament previously claimed that seven Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) belonging to the EC were missing. However, the Commission refuted this allegation during a press conference on Wednesday, March 20.

Dr. Bossman Asare, the Deputy Commissioner at the EC, stated, “These claims are unfounded. No BVDs were stolen. To clarify, the Commission recently carried out routine maintenance on its Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits.

“It was during this maintenance that we discovered the theft of five (5) laptops from the Biometric Voter Registration kits, not seven BVDs as inaccurately reported,” he clarified.

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Nonetheless, Dr. Omane Boamah, in a Facebook post on Friday, March 22, shared a memo dated March 7, 2024, from the EC to certain regional directors requesting the return of some Biometric Verification Devices to the EC headquarters.

“Hopefully, the Electoral Commission of Ghana can recover these unrecovered Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) promptly. This situation is quite concerning! I also trust that the Electoral Commission is prepared to authorize thorough and impartial investigations into the stolen Biometric Voters Registration (BVR) kits.”

“We all need to collaborate to ensure free, fair, and transparent elections,” Dr. Omane Boamah emphasized.
The memo acknowledged missing of EC BVR Kits that these BVDs have not been returned after being used in the 2023 district-level elections.

Statement on facebook

Hopefully, the Electoral Commission of Ghana can retrieve these un-returned Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) very soon. Quite worrying!

I also hope the Electoral Commission is ready and willing to allow for full scale unbiased investigations into the Biometric Voters Registration (BVR) kits that were stolen.

We must all work to achieve a free, fair and transparent elections.…See more

Per the memo, 10 out of the 16 regions had some BVDs to return to the EC. The regions with outstanding BVDs included Eastern, Greater Accra, Northern, Volta, and Western, totaling 28 BVDs.