• The party says an independent audit must be conducted to affirm these claims
•they describe the claims as ridiculous
The Director of Election for the National Democratic Congress, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, has dismissed claims by the EC chairperson Jean Mensa that they saved the country 90 million dollars in the 2020 elections.
According to him, an independent audit of the finances of the Electoral Commission has not to be carried for her to make such claims
He, therefore, described the comment as baseless.
Speaking at a press conference at the party’s headquarters he said, “Madam Jean Mensah also claimed that she saved the country $90 million. She is the only one who knows the basis of this assertion because as far as we are concerned there has not been any independent audit of the finances of the Electoral Commission. Until we have [an] independent scrutiny of her accounts, she cannot claim to have saved any money for Ghana.”
He also claimed that before the elections tens of millions of Ghana cedis had been approved for the EC to upgrade existing infrastructure at the time.
“Parliament had approved tens of millions of Ghana cedis for the EC to upgrade existing infrastructure at the time. What has happened to all the equipment that she spent tens of millions of Ghana cedis on? Her unsubstantiated and unverified claims are akin to a student writing an exam, generating her own marking scheme and subsequently claiming she got 100% in the exams. How ridiculous!!!” he added.
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa, has said the commission saved the country $90 million in the conduct of the 2020 Election by cutting down the cost per person.
She said the amount of $13 which was initially spent on each person in 2016 was cut down to $7.7 in 2020.
Jean Mensa, also revealed that the time spent by a voter was cut down 10 to 12 minutes per voter to three to five minutes.
“Notwithstanding inflation and price hikes and the fact that we incurred additional costs owing to the COVID-19 protocols we deployed throughout the election, we cut the cost per voter, from 13 dollars per head in 2016 to 7 dollars per head. Through a reduction in cost, we saved the government a formidable sum of $90 million.” She said
She made these comments at the opening ceremony of the high-level parliamentary seminar on: “Two decades of democratic elections in ECOWAS member states: Achievements, challenges and the way forward”, in Winneba.
Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Director of Elections of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)