Government has released over GH¢600 million to the Electoral Commission (EC) to aid it prepare for the general elections in November.
The figure is less than half the initial GH¢1.5 billion the EC requested for the conduct of the elections in 2015. The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu made this known at a public forum on the Constitution Amendment Bill on Monday. Mr Iddrisu is also a member of Government’s Economic Management team.
Addressing the forum, Mr Iddriu said, “so far, government has released GH¢693 million to support the operations and activities of the Electoral Commission out of a budget request of GH¢822 million.” He also gave the assurance that the government will honour any additional requests from the EC. Government initially slashed the GH¢1.5 to GH¢1.2 billion, a figure Ghana’s international donor partners expressed concern with and then eventually allocated GH¢ 826 million to the EC.
The Finance Ministry has also made budgetary provisions in the event of run-off during the elections, Mr. Iddrisu assured.
“Ghana will honour its obligation to adequately finance and resource the EC to conduct a free and fair election… as and when they make additional, requests, the Minister of Finance has made extra budgetary provisions in the event of a run-off,” he said.
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