We’ll sanction officials breaching COVID-19 protocols at registration centres – EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has begun investigating the breaching of COVID-19 protocols by its officials at some voters’ registration centres.

This follows the circulation of a video showing how some registration officials at some centres were failing to clean the fingerprint scanners before and after their use.

The EC said it will not hesitate to sanction officials involved in the act.

“The Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) attention has been drawn to a post circulating on social media about the failure of some registration officials at certain centres to clean fingerprint scanners before and after their use.

“The EC will not hesitate to take the necessary action against any official found to be negligent in the observance of the COVID-19 protocols. Additionally, the EC has alerted its monitoring teams to put that agenda on their radar as well as re-echo the precautionary measures to its temporary staff,” the EC said in a statement.

There have been reports of disregard for COVID-19 safety protocols at some registration centres since the exercise kicked off, forcing the EC to introduce some measures to ensure a greater level of compliance to COVID-19 preventive measures.

The EC introduced the queue management system at all of its registration centres to tackle issues with overcrowding.

The queue management system will ensure that the first 150 applicants who arrive at the registration centres will be provided with “numbered chits”, according to the EC.

The first half of this number will be served from morning to early afternoon, while the second half will be asked to leave the centres and return in the afternoon when the registration process for the first batch has been completed.