Brong Ahafo Regional Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kwame Baffoe says officials at the accounts office of the Electoral Commission (EC) are inefficient and unable to discharge their duties very well.
Reacting to errors on the receipt issued by the EC to the leader of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), Papa Kwesi Nduom when filling his nomination forms, Kwame Baffoe wondered how these officials would be able to collate election results during the December polls.
The PPP said it is dragging the EC to the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), and the Auditor-General, to investigate the Electoral Commission for giving them a receipt riddled with mistakes.
According to the party, they believe the EC “is on a course of a possible fraudulent act” because of the receipt which was issued for the payment of nomination fees for their presidential and parliamentary candidates.
“Do you know that the receipt EC gave us for the payment of the deposit had Gh1, 700.00 in figures but in words they wrote One Million Seven Hundred (r was placed after e instead of vice versa) Thousand Ghana cedis. Apart from this, on the same receipt, the EC wrote ‘being payment of parliamentary candidate’ (without s) as if payment was made for only one parliamentary candidate” Director of Policy for the PPP, Kofi Asamoah Siaw, said at a press conference.
The PPP’s presidential nominee was among 13 persons disqualified from the race due to errors on their nomination forms.
The Electoral Commission Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, who made the announcement at a news conference, said those disqualified failed to meet the necessary requirements for a presidential candidate.
There were different reasons for which each of the parties was disqualified.
However Mr Baffoe speaking on Adom FM’s Morning Show “Dwaso Nsem” Wednesday could not fathom why the accounts office of the EC would make such an administrative errors while callenging the claim of infallibility the EC has cloaked itself with.
“If we keep on talking about this disqualification without blaming the EC then we are not being fair to ourselves. The accountants at the EC office are inefficient. They call themselves accountants and then are making simple mistakes.
“Even a simple hundred, they are unable to spell and write on a receipt even when the amount of money was already written on a bankers draft.
“Even my 6 year old son, Julius, when I saw that mistake, I asked him to spell hundred and he was able to do it quickly and even write it for me. And so comparing my son to the accountant in that EC office, I think my son can perform far better than the EC staff.
“Given their (accountants’) performance, can’t he (my son) qualify to be presiding officer? Of course he can but I’m sure they would even reject him because they will say he is my son but these EC officials who keep making mistakes are the ones who will collate election results on election day” he bemoaned.
–adomonline