New Voters' Register: Jean Mensa not being transparent with Ghanaians - Banda MP

Member of Parliament (MP) for Banda Constituency in the Bono Region, Ahmed Ibrahim says the Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson, Madam Jean Mensa is engaging in an undercover work without being honest and transparent with stakeholders and Ghanaians at large.

According to him, when the EC appeared before the Special Budget Committee to present its budget for the 2020 elections, it failed to comply with the demands of the Special Budget Committee but later used the backdoor to get their budget approved without the involvement of the Minority.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Ahmed Ibrahim disclosed that the Ghc1.965 billion Cedis budget proposal of the EC brought a rift between Jean Mensa and the Finance Minister as the latter said only Ghc1.60 billion can be given for the whole exercise.

“When EC appeared before the Special Budget Committee, we demanded that it bring the total expenditure of the resources allocated to it last year and how it is going to spend the budget it has presented to Parliament . . . there was a rift between the EC and the Finance Minister over the actual budget needed for the 2020 Elections. EC demanded Ghc1.965 billion but the Finance Minister said he cannot give such an amount to the EC, he can only raise Ghc1.60 billion and this brought a rift between the Finance Minister and Jean Mensa,” he disclosed.

He added that Madam Jean Mensa insisted that she cannot do any critical electoral activities toward the 2020 elections if the Special Budget Committee does not include the entire Ghc1.965 billion in the next supplementary budget in July 2020.

The Banda lawmaker mentioned that the Majority Leader later brought the report to Parliament for approval after it failed to comply with the demand of the Special Budget Committee.

He stressed that the Electoral Commission later presented Ghc767 million budget to Parliament for approval but the government again said it can only provide Ghc443 million; thus, the EC insisted that the balance should be added to the supplementary budget to make the electoral process successful.

"...it was the difference that the EC came to the Special Budget Committee to include in the supplementary budget which will take in place in July this year,” he asserted.

He charged the Electoral Commission to be transparent and honest.