Electoral Commission needs GH¢1.2 billion for 2016 elections

The Electoral Commission (EC) has requested GH¢1.2 billion to conduct the 2016 General Elections.

The Commission has also proposed an increase in the number of polling stations from 26,906 to 30,000.

The Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Charlotte Osei, who stated this on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, said the amount required for the 2016 polls did not include the cost for compiling a new voters register or the cleaning of the current one.

According to her, the Commission intended to train 152,000 election officials for the polls.

She said professors would be deployed to man coalition centres, whilst national service personnel and selected civil servants would be engaged for the polling stations.

Mrs Osei also revealed that moves to have the presidential and parliamentary elections held on November 7 were advanced with the EC liaising with the Attorney General to have the relevant constitutional provision amended to effect the change.

She said since the constitutional provision which stipulates that the elections be held on December 7 was not an entrenched one, the necessary legislative documents would soon be presented before the House to effect the change.

She said the change in date would make provision for the holding of run-offs in November as well.

Mrs Osei told the House that the EC was also proposing a law which would empower it to prosecute election offenders without the consent or authorisation of the Attorney General.

– graphic

POST TAGS

ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

[email protected]

An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

View all posts by: Nana Kwesi Coomson