EC Blows 300 Million Cedis On Botched DA Elections - VEEP

It has emerged that the Electoral Commission expended a whopping Ghc310 million in the lead-up to the District level elections that was annulled by a Supreme Court ruling at the last hour. This was revealed by the Vice President Kwesi Amissah Arthur on Tuesday March 10, when he gave the keynote address  to open the 4th Regional Minister's Conference underway at Elmina in the Central Region.

The Vice President urged appropriate state institutions to extend the mandate of the current assembly members in order to avert a management gap at the assemblies.

Mr. Amissah Arthur was admonishing regional ministers to use the country's scanty resources judiciously when he made mention of the EC's expenditure which is clearly a waste of national resources.

The Vice President did not give further details of how the amount was expended thus leaving questions as to how Ghc 310 million cedis was exhausted on an election that was cancelled on February 26, before March 3, which was the scheduled date for the poll.

Many had criticized the EC for such public wastage, in a court suit that it could have clearly avoided if it had been prudent enough.

It remains unclear when the next date would be announced for the elections as the Commission was yet to put before Parliament a new legislation for approval to restart the process.

Meanwhile the Chairman of the Electoral Commission Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan and officials of the  Local Government and Rural Development Ministry, are to brief Parliament on Tuesday March 10, about the circumstances that led to the cancellation of the elections and the way forward.

Concerns have been raised about the fact the tenure of current assembly members will expire on Sunday March 15 2015. This means assemblies cannot function without newly elected members.

Laying of a new legislation before Parliament by the EC, will further delay the election since it will take at least 21 days to mature.