EC needs funds for district level elections

Page 15, Dec 16, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

EVEN THOUGH the Electoral Commission requires GH¢67 million to conduct the 2010 district level elections, only GH¢10 million has been allocated in the 2010 budget by the government for the conduct of the elections.
The revelation was made in the report of the Special Budget Committee on the 2010 budget estimates of the commission, which was presented to Parliament by the Majority Leader; Mr Alban Bagbin at Monday’s sitting of the House.
According to the report, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) was anticipating donor support to make up for the difference.
However, the committee observed that an amount of GH¢55,833,456 was released for the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections and wondered whether the estimated GHC67 million would be enough for the district level election, the conduct of which is is more expensive than that of the presidential and the parliamentary elections.
While the number of vacancies for the Unit Committee is 160,000, that of the District Assemblies 5000 and the EC would, therefore require 16,000 different slates for the Unit Committee elections and 5,000 different slates for the district assemblies’ elections.
The committee noted that the number of the unit committees were on the high side and that some unit committees were unable to get the required number of persons to constitute the committees.
“It is the view of the committee that the costs of the district level elections were known to the Mininstry of Finance and Economic Planning before the preparation of the 2010 budget. The ministry should have therefore made provision in the budget for the item rather than having to finance them through donor support and contingency”.
The committee, therefore recommended to the EC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to review the unit committee systems in order to reduce the number and the cost of the election.
According to the report, the EC also intended to introduce electronic or biometric voter registration, which will involve the electronic capture of names, pictures and thumbprints of voters as part of the efforts to clean the voters’ register.
A pilot, would, therefore start soon with the training of personnel and a test-run of the software.
The committee therefore recommended to the MOFEP to release funds to the commission in time to enable it to implement that important activity.
It also recommended to the MOFEP to provide the EC with the necessary funds to enable it provide permanent office accommodation in all regions and districts.
It said in the 2009 budget the EC informed the House that four of its regional offices were in a deplorable state and required urgent renovation while most of its district offices were in rented premises without adequate storage facilities.
It said it was unfortunate that an amount of GH¢842,529 approved by the House for investment purposes for 2009 for the commission was not released at all by the MOFEP.
Commenting on the budget estimates for the commission some MPs stressed on the need for the EC to be properly resourced to enable it conduct free, fair and transparent elections to avoid confusions during elections.
The House approved of GH¢21,633,009 for the operations of the EC for the 2010 fiscal year.
It also approved GH¢1,495,167 for the operations of the Public Services Commission for the 2010 fiscal year.