EC spent ¢317m on botched Assembly Elections; ¢90m more needed

The Electoral Commission is said to have spent an amount of ¢317 million on the botched District Assembly elections.
It still needs another ¢90 million to organise fresh elections after the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the District Assembly elections which was supposed to have been organised on March 3, 2015.

Chairman of the Electoral Commission Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan made these revelations during a close door meeting with Members of Parliament on Tuesday.The EC came under a barrage of criticisms when the Supreme Court put the intended District level elections on ice.

An aspiring District Assemblymember Eyi Mensah who was denied an opportunity to file his nomination to contest the election proceeded to the Supreme Court to challenge the conduct of the election.He averred that the EC illegally closed nominations before the maturation of CI 85, a situation which prevented him from registering to contest in the election.

Per the country’s laws a Constitutional Instrument can only mature after a mandatory 21 days sitting in Parliament.

The EC however maintained that it followed due process in its conduct of the election.The Supreme Court after hearing the substance of the case, ruled in favour of the plaintiff and declared the March 3, election as null and void. The EC chair was hauled before Parliament to explain the circumstances under which the elections were botched.

Joy News has heard from close sources within Parliament that the EC is looking to organise new elections in July, 2015.

It needs an amount of ¢90 million to conduct new elections.

It will be the last election to be presided over by the current Chairman of the Electoral Commission who will be going on retirement this year.

-Joy News

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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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.

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