The Deputy Director of Elections and IT for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Rashid Tanko-Computer, has accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of being dishonest and evasive about the situation regarding the missing BVR and BVD components.

This follows the Electoral Commission's response to the National Democratic Congress's request for the serial numbers of biometric voter registration (BVR) kits deployed for the limited voter registration exercise.

According to the Commission's Director of Public Affairs, the release of such information could trigger a security risk.

In a statement released on May 9, 2024, the EC emphasised the critical role of BVR kits in the electoral process, highlighting that their unique serial numbers are essential for generating activation codes and tracking their location and movement.

Hence, divulging these serial numbers to external parties, including political entities like the NDC, poses a significant risk to the security and integrity of registration processes.

Speaking on the JoyNews AM show on May 10, 2024, Mr Rashid Tanko-Computer stated that “they [EC are economical with the truth. They are not telling Ghanaians the whole truth. The thing is that the BVR that we are talking of comes with a serial number and that serial number at the time of registering is displayed there.

Dr Rashid Tanko-Computer argued that since the serial numbers were also stolen along with the BVR and BVD components, the EC should disclose the serial numbers to the NDC.

He emphasised that the theft took place at the heavily guarded EC headquarters, refuting suggestions that the missing items were stolen from North Tongu in the Volta Region.

According to him, this further points to the severity and questionable nature of the incident.

“We attended IPAC at the time they were questioning them at the special budget committee; they did not say it was not North Tongu.

“We are saying that thieves are holding five of them, and up until now they cannot be accounted for; they cannot get them, and we are doing registration. This registration is done both offline and online.

“Do you know what offline they can do with it? After you finish putting the data in it, you take a pen drive to offload them, and now you go and put them in a centralized database. Somebody has the five machines sitting somewhere, looking for an activation code. If he manages to get the laptops free of charge, the activation code for that one is a bonus. We are saying that we want to track the registration. I know which machine is registering which number, and that one is hell,”he lamented.