EC to settle arrears of aggrieved temporary staff
The Electoral Commission says it will soon pay the allowances of aggrieved temporary staff who worked on the main voter registration which ended last month
The acting director of public affairs of the Electoral Commission, Sylvia Annoh, has said that the EC will soon pay allowances owed to aggrieved temporary staff for work they did in the just-ended voter registration exercise.
“They haven’t been paid yet but they will … be paid as soon as is practicable. The Commission is working towards it,” Annoh said.
“I don’t want to put a time frame to it but the most important thing is that we are making preparation for them to be paid soon.”
She was speaking with Nana Yaa Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday.
Tough work
The Coalition of Temporary Staff of the Electoral Commission on Wednesday announced that it will embark on a series of demonstrations if staff allowances are not paid as promised.
The officers, who were recruited by the EC to supervise the voter registration exercise which took place between 30 June and 6 August, said the delay in payment is causing them distress.
The leader of the coalition, Ibrahim Abode, told Asaase News’s Ashanti Region correspondent Jonathan Ofori that all attempts to engage the EC about the arrears have not yielded results.
“Our concern is about our payment after we have finished the registration exercise. From June to August, we have not been paid,” Abode said. “During that exercise we were even expecting to be paid before we complete the project, but we have finished without a pesewa.
“It was very tough work. We moved from polling station to polling station and it took a lot of cost. You have families who are expecting something from you and after it nothing.”
Threatening boycott
Abode said the temporary staff were made to sign a contract but without any clear timelines for payment for their work, which lasted between 30 and 40 days.
They have threatened to boycott the voter register exhibition process at over 33,000 designated centres across the country.
Meanwhile, Asaase Radio understands that the withdrawal of services by temporary staff has not affected the exhibition of the register, which began on Friday (18 September) and ends on 25 September.
Fred Dzakpata
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