The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has said they do not need permission from the Electoral Commission(EC) to use drones to monitor operations for the 2024 election.
However, Emmanuel Nii Ashie Moore has said the NDC will follow all due processes to enable it to execute its plans.
He explained the deployment will be done only in the Greater Accra region but he does not think the NDC leadership will shoot it down if a nationwide rollout becomes necessary.
“I don’t need permission from the EC to fly a drone when I’m going to bury my dead mother. In the statement I made, I did not say that I would fly a drone on top of a polling station.
“I said this election we would use drones to monitor polling agents, prompters, and to ensure that whatever assignment I have given to people is being done,” he stated in an interview on Accra-based UTV.
Mr Ashie-Moore’s comment is in reaction to concerns expressed by the EC following the announcement on Monday.
The EC has emphasised that such a move would constitute an invasion of voters’ electoral privacy and a breach of security protocols, and thus, it will not be allowed.
But the former Adentan MP insists drone deployment is nothing new in elections, adding it is a norm in some democracies.
“This is the 21st century and I think we should wake up. Dr Serebour Quaicoe is speaking too much English. I was an observer in one of the African countries last month and they used drones to follow ballot papers to the collation centres.
“We need the security agencies and the EC onboard to modify this so that if someone is planning something untoward, he would know that Big Brother would be watching him,” he added.
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