ASEPA has threatened to report two state institutions to the World Health Organisation (WHO) over their decisions ignore some coronavirus protocols announced by government to stem the spread of the pandemic in Ghana which has so far recorded seven active cases.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on March 14 announced a ban on social gatherings as part of elebaorate measures put in place by the government and health authorities to stop the disease from spreading.
But the National Identification Authority on Monday ignored the directive as its staff continued with ongoing registration exercise for GhanaCard in the Eastern Region. NIA officials said they have put in place precautionary measures.
The Electoral Commission (EC) also announced Tuesday that it will go ahead with its planned voters’ registration exercise geared towards the compilation of a new voters’ register for the conduct of the December 2020 general elections.
The EC however said it will push the registration date from the original April 18 to a later date to be announced “in due course”
The two institutions have rejected calls to suspend the registration exercises which critics say create platforms for large social gathering, a situation they said is likely to create a fertile ground to spread the virus.
But ASEPA is demanding the NIA stops the registration exercise while they want the EC to also suspend the upcoming voters’ registration exercise because they “can present a real danger of a global reinfection” of the virus that has infected more than 200,000 people globally.
It warned “to send an official petition to the WHO” to report the two institutions.
ASEPA said it will put the IMF and the World Bank on copy and request them “not to vote any resources out of the over $83billlion they have allocated to support developing countries to Ghana as we have not done much to deserve it.”
“These actions by the Electoral Commission and the NIA are in total violation of the WHO protocols instituted to truncate the spread of the Coronavirus,” ASEPA maintained in the statement.
For ASEPA, it is evidently clear that the EC and the NIA and “do not have the public health safety of the people at heart”, describing that as “very unfortunate”.
By Lydia Amponsah|3news.com|Ghana