No budget for district level elections in 2014
Although the Electoral Commission (EC) is to conduct and supervise district level elections next year, no budgetary provision has been made for the exercise in the 2014 Budget.
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This revelation in the report of the Special Budget Committee of Parliament took centre stage yesterday when the House considered the 2014 budget estimates of the EC.
The EC requested for GH¢327,179,894 for its operations for 2014 but only GH¢141,082,137 was approved in the budget, leaving a balance of GH¢186,097,575 required to conduct and supervise the district level elections and the expected referendum on amendments to the 1992 Constitution.
The Special Budget Committee reported that the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, had given an assurance during its sitting that GH¢100,000 would be taken from the Goods and Services component of the GOG within the General Services Vote and GH¢86,097,575 from the General Services component of the Development Partners Fund within the General Services Vote to make up for the shortfall in the EC's budget for 2014.
Contributing to the debate, the Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Alfred Kwame Agbesi, called for the amount to be released in time to avoid the trauma that the country went through during the 2010 district level elections.
"We want to avoid the situation where the district elections were held in tots the last time," he stated.
Two other MPs, Mr Anthony Akoto Osei (Old Tafo) and Papa Owusu-Ankomah (Sekondi), expressed similar sentiments and called for an assurance from the Finance Minister before the budget for the EC was approved.
Responding to the concerns of the House, Mr Terkper stated that the shortfall in the EC’s budget would be catered for within the 2014 Appropriation Bill and called on the MPs not to be alarmed.
Number of Polling Stations
Another issue that appeared in the committee's report was the decision by the EC to peg the maximum number of voters per polling station at 800.
In view of that, there will be about 35,000 polling stations opened for the district level elections in 2014, compared to the existing 26,200 used for the 2012 general election.
Again, to ensure compliance with the 'No Verification, No Vote' policy, the EC will provide two biometric verification devices (BVDs) per polling station and a few more as back up for every electoral area.
The implication is that a minimum of 70,000 BVDs will be needed for the district level elections, and since voting is expected to take place on October 7, 2014, the machines must be ordered and delivered latest by April, 2014.
In addition, the EC needs to acquire about 1,000 biometric registration kits (BRKs) to argument the 7,000 already in place to enable the commission to undertake continuous voter registration and periodic mass registration of voters.
Warehouse facilities
Many of the sensitive BVDs and BRKs which were procured for the 2012 general election are in a deplorable state due to the absence of appropriate warehouse facilities.
To reduce the number of damaged equipment that has to be repaired and replaced each election year, there is the need for the construction of appropriate conditioned warehouses across the country.
The committee noted in its report that the completion of a national warehouse complex had been factored in the 2014 budget of the EC and urged the Ministry of Finance to ensure that funding for the project was released and on time.
That, according to the committee, would save the country from spending large sums of money in servicing, maintaining and replacing malfunctioning BVDs and BRKs each election year.
Amendment of constitutional provision
The committee noted that the budgetary requirements of the EC were always reviewed downwards by the Ministry of Finance, compelling Parliament to make interventions for the commission in most election years for more funds to be allocated to te commission.
To forestall that situation, it suggested in its report the review of the constitutional provision establishing the EC to afford the commission the opportunity to directly present its budget proposals to the President for onward submission to Parliament, with his recommendation.
"This, in the view of the committee, will uphold the independence of the EC and also grant it the same status as institutions such as the Audit Service, the Judiciary and Parliament,” it stated.
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