Elections in Ghana too expensive – EC Boss

The Chairperson of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, has decried the high cost of conducting elections in the country.

Ms Mensa who was speaking at the 17th international electoral affairs symposium advocated that measures must be put in place the minimize cost of conducting elections in Ghana.

According to her, the cost of the 2016 election was over 12 dollars per voter compared to 9 dollars in Nigeria and 5 dollars Tanzania in 2015.

She added that the tendency of depending on developing partners to partly fund the cost of elections in Ghana compromises the independence of the elections.

“Our elections are fast becoming very expensive ventures and we constantly rely on our development partners to partly fund our elections thereby compromising our independence.

“For example in 2016, the cost of elections in Ghana was 12 dollars per voter compared to 9 dollars in Nigeria and 5 dollars per voter in Tanzania in 2015. How can election monitoring bodies streamline their processes to reduce cost,” Ms Mensa said.

Her comments come after the former Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD Ghana) in August last year challenged the new Electoral Commission (EC) leadership to reduce the cost per voter for the country.

Prof. Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi noted that the unjustifiably high per voter cost of Ghana’s general elections pegged at $12.03 per voter in 2016 was expensive.

“I daresay that at this price, one day it may literally be impossible for Ghana to hold elections,” he said.

He believes the cost per voter is one of the obstacles to inclusive democratic representation within the election management body itself.