Botched assembly polls cost GH¢317 million; EC asks for GH¢90 million more
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has requested an additional GH¢90 million for the conduct of the district level elections, after spending GH¢317 million on the elections that should have been held on March 3, 2015.
Advertisement
He, however, hinted that if new contestants joined the fray, the figure of GH¢90 million might go up.
At a closed-door meeting with Members of Parliament (MPs) in Accra yesterday, Dr Afari-Gyan said if the EC had to adhere to the provisions of the 1992 Constitution, the elections were likely to be held in July or later.
He explained that if a new Constitutional Instrument (CI) was laid before the House and it took the mandatory 21 sitting days to mature, it was not possible to hold the elections before July.
On March 3, this year, Parliament invited Dr Afari-Gyan to appear before it to explain the circumstances surrounding the order made by the Supreme Court temporarily suspending the holding of the district level elections.
The First Deputy Speaker, Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, who had issued the invitation, said the EC Chairman also needed to tell the House the way forward with regard to the elections.
He issued the order for the EC Chairman to appear in person after members had said the failure of the commission to hold the elections had serious implications for the country.
The elections, originally scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, 2015, were stopped by the Supreme Court after it ruled in favour of a disqualified aspiring assembly member, Mr Benjamin Eyi Mensah.
Other Trending Stories
A source which was present at the meeting told the Daily Graphic that the EC Chairman argued that after the maturation of the CI, the commission would need two months to prepare for the elections.
It said Dr Afari-Gyan told the House that out of the GH¢327 million it requested for the abortive elections, GH¢317 was released by the Ministry of Finance, leaving a balance of GHc10 million which the EC still needed for its operations.
Apology
Dr Afari-Gyan, the source said, rendered an unqualified apology to Ghanaians for events leading to the cancellation of the elections and added that he had been ill-advised.
He said he had been misled into believing that he could open and close nominations before CI 85, which was supposed to regulate the conduct of the elections, matured.
He, however, failed to name which individual or group had given him the wrong advice when urged on by MPs.
At that juncture, the Chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament, Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, urged him to state clearly before all MPs that it was not the committee which had misled the EC, to clear any doubt in the minds of all present.
Dr Afari-Gyan complied and admitted that the EC had been wrong.
After that, members sought to ascertain why he had refused to reply letters written to him by counsel for Mr Benjamin Eyi Mensah, the fisherman who sued the EC, leading to the cancellation of the elections and the illegality of the conduct of the election.
He replied that he never received any letter from Mr Alex Afenyo-Markin, counsel for the plaintiff.
Committees
According to the source, it was agreed by members that the leadership of the House, the parliamentary committees on Subsidiary Legislation, Local Government, Special Budget and Finance, as well as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, meet and deliberate on whether or not a new CI needed to be laid before the House to guide the conduct of the new elections.
The committee has also been charged to come up with strategies to deal with the vacuum that will be created in the assemblies as a result of the expiration of the term of the current assembly members.