Registration officials of the Electoral Commission are demanding immediate payment of their allowance for work done during the recent voters’ registration exercise.

According to the officers, after conducting the tiring registration exercise for over a month, the electoral management body is yet to inform them when exactly they will be paid.

Over 44,000 staff and over 5,000 technicians were recruited, trained, and deployed to 33,367 registration centres across the country in the exercise which started from June 30 to Thursday, August 6.

A mop-up exercise was undertaken at the various district offices of the EC across the country on Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9.

Some of the registration officers who spoke to Kasapafmonline.com on condition of anonymity urged the EC to immediately begin to pay the allowance to enable them to cater for their families and other dependants as we’re in hard times.

“Our commitment to this national assignment(registration exercise) was strong and we discharged this duty to the best of our ability. Several weeks after the exercise ended, none of us knows when we are going to be paid as the EC is yet to communicate to us. In this COVID-19 era, times are hard and we need money to take care of our families. A good worker deserves to be paid and the payment must be timely. We need our money now, the EC should not delay,” one officer said.

Another stated: “What I find worrying is that the allowance for voters registration exercise has not been paid to us and yet they’ll expect us to work during the voters register exhibition exercise which is due to start in a few days time. We’ve not been paid for the work we did in June to August. Where does the EC expect us to get the motivation to work? We are in hard times and it’s important that the EC pays us so that we can work cheerfully and give off our best. What is surprising is that even our directors don’t have a clue as to when we’ll be paid. We can’t continue to suffer in silence. The time is now, the EC must pay us!,”