EC must declare monies received from donors - O. B. Amoah

Member of Parliament for Akuapim South Constituency in the Eastern Region, O. B. Amoah, has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to declare all the funds it has received from donor agencies for the 2016 elections.

“The EC should let the whole world know how much the donors have given to Ghana for the election so that there would be transparency in the funds received,” he demanded.

Mr. Amoah who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) representative of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) was speaking on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa on Thursday.

Mr. Amoah was commenting on UK government’s decision not to support Ghana again financially during elections after it presented 4 million pounds to Ghana for this year’s elections.

The MP told Yen Sempa host, Kwame karikari that “the decision is in the right direction because it is enough notice for us to prepare for the next elections. We should look for our own money to organize our elections”.

The NPP MP said when the EC submitted its budget to Parliament, it was expecting the government of Ghana to bear all the cost of the elections, and must therefore account for what it received from donors.

O. B. Amoah explained that the donor agencies have their representatives in the country “so if we use those monies well, they are aware and if we don’t use them well, they are aware so if at the end of the day [the EC] can’t justify how they are used, then they have to think about it”.

Asked whether the GHc800m budget for this year’s election will be enough, Mr Amoah noted that he had the opportunity to sit in a Committee of Special Budget in Parliament meeting and realized that the EC did not include the validation component for the budget, but added, “it is not too late to ask for money for validation”.

On the call for a new voters’ register, he said the NPP “have abandoned the push for a new voters’ register…All the parties have shifted the position to the validation, and validation is not too late for us”.

Director of Election for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu Ampofo also not that Ghana should be able to organize elections without donor support.

He said “it will put some string on our budget but as a sovereign nation we should be able to fund our election”.