Dr Oduro Osae, a governance analyst has cautioned the government against starving the Electoral Commission of much-needed funds in its quest to wean the country off donor support and assistance for the 2020 elections.
He explained that irrespective of the source of funding, the government must put the Electoral Commission in the right financial state to deliver free, fair, transparent, impartial and credible elections.
“This is the first time but can we do it? We cannot toy with our elections, for instance, if the Electoral Commission does not have enough resources to be able to run a credible, transparent free, fair and impartial elections, donor funding will have helped us to do the same, what will it mean for elections and results? In the absence of donor funding, the elections must be acceptable,” he stressed.
But Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the Commission, said the citizenry was already overburdened and indicated that it is the government that funds our elections in its totality, I do not think imposition of election tax will be something the citizenry will take lightly because we are already over-taxed, we do have resources, with efficient and effective management, we should be able to fund our elections.”
The government has indicated that it is dedicated, determined and committed to raising funds internally to support and assist electoral activities for the polls in 2020
in line with ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda and will not be looking for support and assistance from donor partners to carry out statutory obligations due to improvement in domestic revenue mobilisation.
The country depends on support and assistance from donor partners and the government to fund its parliamentary, presidential and local assembly elections which has brought calls for the Commission to introduce special taxes to fund elections. -citinewsroom.com
