The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Emmanuel Nii Ashie Moore, has asserted that the Electoral Commission (EC) lacks the authority to prohibit his party from deploying drones for monitoring activities during the 2024 elections.
He emphasised that, the use of drones for electoral monitoring, a practice embraced by numerous democracies, plays a crucial role in upholding the transparency and credibility of elections.
Despite opposition from the Electoral Commission (EC), which cited concerns over privacy, Mr. Ashie Moore remains steadfast in his advocacy for drone usage.
Speaking in an interview with Accra-based UTV on Wednesday, March 13, he assured that the NDC is committed to adhering to all legal protocols necessary to integrate drones into their operational strategies for the upcoming December 7, 2024, elections.
However, he asserted that the party would not be swayed or influenced by any external parties regarding the deployment of their strategies to ensure free and fair elections in the upcoming 2024 general elections.
“This is one of the strategies that I want to use in my region to monitor the operation. To monitor things that I’ve seen during the limited registration. So that if someone is planning something untoward, he will know that Big Brother will be watching him.
“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 my polling agents, to monitor my prompters, to ensure that whatever assignment I have given is being done,” he said.
The regional chairman said that the EC should embrace the suggestion of using drones during the election because it is being done in many democracies.