US pledges $4.5 million for Ghana’s election 2016

• Posted on April 18, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The United States government has pledged a financial support of over 4.5 million dollars for Ghana’s forthcoming elections.  Ghana is expected to go to the polls in November to elect a President and Parliamentarians.

According to the US government, one third of that amount would be given to the Electoral Commission to help in its strategic communication work, while another one third would be used by the peace commission for peace keeping operations. “We are providing about 4.5 million dollars in assistance for Ghana’s election. One third of that will go to the Electoral Commission to assist with its strategic communications and provide other support for the Commission, educating voters and making people aware of the practicalities of voting. One third of the funds will also go to the peace commission. …”the US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson said.

Ambassador Jackson said the US government will also be offering additional training programmes for journalists ahead of the election to equip them to cover the polls effectively. “…we will be doing additional training for journalists and we will also be working to identify the areas that are at greatest risk of conflict. The Peace Commission and the UNDP have already done a map of potential conflict areas. We are bringing leading experts from US agency for international development on election security to validate that work.” The United States of America will coincidentally be voting in their elections around the same time with Ghana.

UK’s £4m for Ghana’s democratic activities to last for 5yrs 

The United Kingdom Government recently launched a  £4 million electoral support programme for Ghana’s democratic activities. The electoral assistance programme tagged the ‘Deepening Democratic Governance Programme’, is geared towards weaning Ghana off international assistance as far as its democratic activities are concerned. The UK Government said that will be it’s last support for Ghana in that regard after the five-year period elapses.

-citifmonline