The Integrity of the Electoral Commission, EC has been further bruised by another top official, Sylvia Annor, Public Relations Officer who has been exposed for blatant lies over missing names including that of the MP for Ashaiman, Ernest Henry Norgbey in the provisional register.
Sylvia Annor who was reacting to complaints by the Ashaiman MP that his name was among over 21,000 names could not be traced in the voter register in his constituency insisted in a radio interview in Accra that itcould not be true.
“Regarding the response by the Ashaiman MP, to the effect that his name has been deleted from the voters register, let me state emphatically that it is false” – She emphasized.
The EC Spokesperson confidently added..”His name has not been deleted nor expunged from the voters register. Secondly as being alleged that the names of 21,000 registered voters have been deleted from the voters register, that again is false and we have evidence”
Sylvia Annor further noted that the total number of registered voters captured in the provisional register in the Ashaiman constituency stands at 160,058, below a figure in excess of 167,000 names the Member of Parliament quoted.
MP for Ashaiman in an earlier press release claimed that his name was missing at the Celestial SHS 1 voter exhibition center of Center code C260703.
“I was alarmed by this so I quickly deployed my research officers to conduct an audit of all the registers exhibited at all the exhibition centres across the constituency. To my utmost shock, out of 167,286 people registered, we only found about 146,000 names in the registers exhibited. Over 21,000 names were missing from the registers”
Further investigations by Accra based Joy News has revealed that indeed, the MP’s claim was true and the Electoral Commission lied.
Joy News television report after visiting the center and interviews with the EC official in charge of the Polling center where the exhibition was ongoing presented the bare facts.
“On Friday, when we came here, people started coming but their names were not in the register, so we were told to capture all those affected. They write their names, voter card ID numbers and their telephone numbers. So when the MP also came, truly his name was not in the register. So his name was also captured with the ID details – the Official told Joy News TV as he showed the news team details on the forms people had filled.
He added,…. “ That same evening when the MP complained, when I went to the office, I saw that they had brought a new register. So we checked from the office and we saw his name ( MP Ernest Nogbey) in the new register EC had brought. But when the MP came first his name was not in the first register the EC gave us”
Joy News: So on Friday his name was not in the exhibition register?
EC Polling Station Official: Yes.
Sylvia Annor’s reaction and the obvious false claim, exposed by the EC official at post has revived concerns about actions and pronouncements by top EC officials further fuelling suspicions about their motive and attempts to disenfranchise a section of Ghanaians to rig the elections for the governing NPP.
Social media is awash with videos of EC Chairperson, Jean Mensah’s testimony before the Emile Short Commission which probed the Ayawaso West Wuogon election violence during which she also lied on tape and is walking free in spite of the oath she swore.
In that viral tape, Jean Mensah in response to a specific question about the presence of masked men in national security outfit intimidating voters and the violent shooting incident at one of the polling stations said….”I want to say here that they were ordinarily clothed, they were not armed”
Emile Short Commission: There are reports of persons purported to have come from national security who were actually armed at some polling stations. You are aware of that?
EC Chair: Not at all. from the reports we have received from our field officers, who were monitoring, there were no armed security personnel at any of the 137 polling stations.
Emile Short Commission: There are also reports of intimidating masked men in black and brown uniforms at some of the polling stations are you aware?
EC Chair: There were no masked men who were wielding arms in any of the 137 Polling Stations. The reports that have come in and all the monitors including members of the EC did not identify any of the armed masked men at any of the Polling stations.
Emile Short Commission: Are you saying that you have actually investigated and you can confirm that there were no masked men. Is that what you are saying?
EC Chair: Yes.
Written by: Cyril Duodu & Attractive Mustapha
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