The General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party, John Boadu has justified the decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to suspend the voters’ registration exercise.

The EC on Wednesday announced that it had suspended the planned exercise which was initially scheduled for April 18, 2020, because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to journalists after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting the Commission’s Director of Electoral Services, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, said the Commission is collaborating with health experts to decide on a more favourable date depending on the prevalence rate of the virus.

John Boadu, on Eyewitness News, indicated that it was necessary to ensure the safety of everyone hence the reason to suspend the registration exercise.

“It’s about the condition all of us find ourselves in with this pandemic. All of us are faced with this challenge that we need to work as a people to contain or reduce the spread of this disease. They think that it is important to all adhere to the requirements given by the President and pray that we’ll be able to contain it so that we can look at the way forward. So in terms of whether or not they’ve aborted it, I don’t think abortion is part of it at all because the 18th is close to the 16th of April and after the review of all the measures, they’ll take the decision as to when they should roll out the registration date,” he remarked.

But the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, on the same program said the EC only took that action as a cover-up and not as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The actual reason is not about COVID-19 at all, they are simply not ready. According to their procurement agreement, the first consignment of the equipment even in the situation where there was no COVID-19 was not going to enter the country before the 18th and so it is just poor planning so they should not hide under any COVID-19 because other activities of the Commission have been ongoing on the field.”

Source: peacefmonline