Workers of the companies of
printing houses which are being contracted by the Electoral Commission (EC) of
Ghana to print ballot papers for the December 7, 2020 general elections have
raised an alarm bell that their personal lives are in absolutely danger, which
unfortunate situation needs swift intervention by President Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo to resolve the problem.
The threat on their lives,
according to the workers, generally characterized the growing phenomenon of
harassments, intimidations, terrorization and threats meted out to their lives
by the gun wieding national security agents when they were at work printing the
electoral ballot papers.
Scores of the workers who spoke
on the strict conditions of anonymity because they said they did not want to
get on the wrong side of the security agents, expressed displeasure with the
wrong level at which the nation security personnel compressing of soldiers,
police, EC private security and various political party agents deployed to
these printing houses to monitor the process the printing of the ballot papers
are handling the entire security situations at the various working places.
The security situations, the
visibly workers described as a show of force and harassment, making them
leaving in the state panic and fear whenever they are working, which hitherto
has adversed effects on their works.
They lamented that the security agents had always
took several security checks on their private bodies and after that they seized
their personal belongings including mobile phones, jeweleries, monies,
watchers, among others before they would be allowed to enter their printÃng
houses to work on the electoral ballot papers.
They had not even allowed “us to make telephone calls
to family and friends at anytime we are at work.’
“Our lives in danger now so we are appealing to H.E
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to immediately come to our aid. This is
simply because we have been working for these printing houses which have been
contracted by Electoral Commission of Ghana to print electoral ballot papers
for the past eighteen (18) years now.
“But to clarify the current issue we had never had these
types of experience of the high level harassments, threats, intimidations,
terrorization on our lives before like what are happening to our lives for the
printing ballot papers for December 7, 2020 general elections,” the workers
lamented.
Aside the issue of their
accusations against the security agents for harassments, threats,
intimidations, terrorization, the destraught workers spilled the beans about
the unfair treatment meted out to them by their employers in the ongoing
printing of the ballot papers for the forthcoming general elections.
They further expressed
displeasure about the forced labour in the production of the printing of this
year’s election ballot papers, saying that they are not being paid good
renumeration for working extra hours for printing of the ballot papers.
“We have been working for 24
hours a day, 7 days a week for the past three weeks and five days now in the
un-conducive working environment Ãn our printing houses for the printing of the
ballot papers but we want to state clearly that our bonuses for the working for
over time are nothing to write home about,” they stated.
The workers complained bitterly
about severe mosquitoes attacks in their various printing houses of the 24-7
that they had been engaged woking for printing of the ballot papers.
“We are currently working for
24-hour/7 every days for printing of the ballot papers and whenever we have a
two hours break, we don’t have a place to sleep for that period of the resting
times or hours. We don’t even have place to take our bath, and sometimes we
have in stand in the darkness within the workÃng place to have our bath,” the
workers lamented.
The workers blamed their
predicament on the government of President Akufo-Addo and management of the EC
for not doing due diligence in the awarding contracts of the printing of ballot
papers to their printing houses.
“We are apportioning blames to
the government of President Akufo-Addo and management of the EC for problem
because we are expecting that the state election regulatory institutions which
are responsible for awarding of the printing of the ballot papers to the
companies of the printing houses should first conduct search in the working
environment of these printing houses and varify whether or not they working
environments are safe for workers before they should go ahead to award the
contract, but they had not done so,” they noted.
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