Honorary Vice President of IMANI-Africa, Bright Simons, has stated that the Electoral Commission (EC) has not been entirely honest about electoral expenditures.
According to him, organising elections in Ghana has always been very expensive, and he therefore does not understand why the Commission was insisting that it spent $7.7 per voter in the 2020 elections.
Speaking on JoyNews Newsfile on May 4, Simons stated that in 2020, the country spent approximately GH₵1.2 billion to organise the elections.
This figure, he said, when calculated, means that approximately $12.5 is spent on each voter. Which he said was relatively high.
“The $7.7 that he uses, if you go to look at the records in the ministry of Finance, Parliament, public records, you will see how much money we spent in total in 2020 as GH₵1.36 billion. If we compare what we spent years before we had no elections, you can then subtract as they do, you establish how much they spent because of the elections.
“Take the years before we had the elections; say 2019, 2018, then you get to 2020 when we have elections. You look at the difference in terms of budget amount allocated to the EC. When you get that number it is about almost GH₵1.2 billion then you divide it by the total number of registered voters for that election and you strike an average, you get $12.5 not $7.7," he said.
His comments were in response to claims by the Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, that the EC spent $7.7 per voter in 2020.
"If you look at our cost for 2020, in comparative terms if you take 2016 the unit cost per person was $13.3 but if you take 2020 it was $7.7," he had said.
However, the the Honorary Vice President of IMANI said the outfit conducted a detailed analysis of some claims of the EC, which turned out to be untrue.
- Read also: We should be careful not to destroy our institutions without just cause – Serebour Quaicoe
Mr Simons' noted that “This is the highest we have ever seen and one of the highest in the world. so when they tell you, its $7.7 either you do the maths yourself or you take their word for it,” he said.
See video:
Latest Stories
-
Center for Learning and Childhood Development Director Dr Kwame Sakyi honoured at Ghana Philanthropy Awards
4 hours -
Asantehene receives 28 looted artefacts
5 hours -
CAF WCL 2024: Ghana’s Thelma Baffour wins title with TP Mazembe
5 hours -
Benjamin Boakye slams politicisation of energy sector issues and ECG’s inefficiencies
6 hours -
Erastus Asare Donkor and Dr Neta Parsram win big at 10th Mining Industry Awards
6 hours -
Government is “suppressing information” about power sector challenges – IES Director
6 hours -
Majority of our debts caused by forex shortfall – ECG Boss
6 hours -
Pan-African Savings and Loans supports Ghana Blind Union with boreholes
7 hours -
Bole-Bamboi MP Yussif Sulemana donates to artisans and Bole SHS
7 hours -
Top up your credit to avoid potential disruption – ECG to Nuri meter customers
7 hours -
Dutch & Co wins 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year Award
7 hours -
We’ll cut down imports and boost consumption of local rice and other products – Mahama
10 hours -
Prof Opoku-Agyemang donates to Tamale orphanage to mark her birthday
11 hours -
Don’t call re-painted old schools brand new infrastructure – Prof Opoku-Agyemang tells gov’t
11 hours -
Sunon Asogli plant will be back on stream in a few weeks – ECG
12 hours