Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu is asking the Electoral Commission (EC) to come clean on the source of funding for the purchase of some Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) it has allegedly procured.

The PPEs is said to aid the Commission with the compilation of a new voters register.

This, according to Mr Haruna, is because the EC did not make any provision in its 2020 budget that was approved by Parliament.

“The EC in its Statement alleged that they did not receive any PPEs from Government. The question that the EC must answer is how it came by the PPEs it claimed were enough for the intended compilation of a new Voters Register, which has been wildly condemned by Civil Society, and well-meaning Ghanaians.

“The concern I expressed in the Press Conference was a simple caution to the E.C. not to be primarily concerned about the health and safety of only staff of the Commission but the general wellbeing of the Ghanaian populace.

“The E.C. needed to be reminded that the Commission did not make any provision for the procurement of PPEs in its 2020 budget as approved by Parliament in December since no one anticipated the pandemic at the time of the approval of the budget,” he said in a statement sighted by JoyNews.

The Member of Parliament for Tamale South Constituency said the clarification will help to restore the integrity of the Electoral Commission which is already battered.

“Questions on the integrity of the EC and its Leadership are issues of public knowledge and cannot be attributable to the Press Statement by the Minority Caucus in Parliament. For instance the integrity of the E.C. and its Leadership was battered when it was forced to withdraw, on two separate occasions, the Constitutional Instrument for the conduct of the 2020 elections, due to elementary errors discovered by the Minority in the Instrument. (It is only the current Leadership of the Commission that would seek to use Regulations to amend an Act).

“This exhibition of incompetence and lack of diligence and consequently the integrity of the E.C. in the eyes of the public is not and cannot be attributable to the press conference of the Minority," he said.

Last week Friday, the Minority in Parliament during a press briefing accused government of choosing to supply PPEs to officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) when doctors, nurses and other frontline healthcare workers were lacking same.

He added that it was also shocking that government officials were publicly justifying the irresponsible conduct of the EC to organize a workshop even in the face of a court injunction secured by the MP for Ningo-Prampram, Sam George.

But the Electoral Commission (EC) has come out to deny receiving any personal protective equipment (PPEs) from the government.

In a press release signed by its Acting Director for Public Affairs Sylvia Annoh, the EC said the Minority in Parliament’s assertion that it had received PPE from the government was without any basis.

According to the Commission, it is worrying that the leader of the Minority will put out such information without substantiating its authenticity.

But addressing the comeback, Haruna Iddrisu said with his experience in politics, all his comments and assertions are made based on facts.

“The E.C. should note that I have over the years been very circumspect in my political commentary, having occupied respectable portfolios at the Political Party level, the Executive and the Legislative and therefore do not just comment on any matter.

"As I said I referenced the Director of Electoral Services, Dr. Serebuor Quaicoo and the said Director has not denied those assertions."