Accra, Oct. 7, GNA – Members of Parliament (MPs) have raised concern about the use of the provisional voters’ register by the Electoral Commission (EC) to file nomination of candidates in the next general elections.
It is about two months to the polls, and both the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Deputy Minority Chief Whip and MP for Banda, are pointing out the challenges that would affect the polls, if it were detected later that registered voters who endorsed candidates are not eligible.
Mr Ibrahim, who is also the MP for Banda, also told the house the House that it had often happened that people who worked on behalf of the Commission in the conduct of elections had complained that they had not been paid.
Commenting on a “Report of the Special Budget Committee on the First and Quarters Budgetary Performance of the Electoral Commission and the Roadmap to Election 2020” submitted to the House, the Banda MP said a budget shortfall of GH¢271million for the conduct of the elections must be released by the Ministry of Finance to the Electoral Commission without any further delay.
“The GH¢271 million is a must,” he said.
The report also “strongly urges the Finance Minister to ensure the release of the outstanding GH¢329 million carried from 2019 to enable the Commission provide all relevant equipment and devices foe the successful conduct of the Election 2020.”
According to a Report of the Special Budget Committee on the First and Quarters Budgetary Performance of the Electoral Commission and the Roadmap to Election 2020” submitted to the House, last June, the June implementation of the 2020 election programme requires GH¢1.3 billion.
As at June 16, 2020, when the Committee met with the Commission in Parliament, in Accra, the report said: “However, the Ministry of Finance, based on its ceilings allocated an amount of GH¢1,063,157,629 to the Commission to finance its activities in 2020 resulting in a shortfall of GH¢271,099,939.”
Activities related to the conduct of the General Elections include the procurement of modernized Biometric Voter Solutions, procurement of registration and exhibition materials, replacement and exhibition of the Voter Register, nomination of Candidates, conduct of the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections and gazetting of the Election Results.
GNA