No more donor support; Government to fund 2020 elections with internal funds – Oppong Nkrumah

Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has disclosed that the Akufo-Addo government is committed to raising funds internally to support electoral activities across the country for the Presidential and Parliamentary polls in 2020.

This he says is in line with the government’s “Ghana Beyond Aid agenda” and will mean that government will not be looking for support from donor partners to carry out its statutory obligations like the running of elections.

Addressing the media after Cabinet’s 64th regular meeting and 9th retreat at Peduase in the Eastern Region on Sunday, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the improvement in domestic revenue mobilization is critical to ensure the government is able to carry out its statutory obligations.

“In other statutory obligation for the year, particularly on elections, it will be carried out within the national resource envelope. This is a critical feature of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda. What all of this means is that we ourselves have to look at all these obligations and fund them. The days that we have to be relying on donor partners to execute some of these critical national obligations are over. It falls squarely within our ambits and what that means is that the generation of our internal resources to meet those obligations is key.”

Ghana depends on support from donor partners and central government to fund its parliamentary, presidential and local assembly elections.

This has brought calls for the Electoral Commission (EC) to introduce special taxes to fund elections in the country.

But EC Chair, Jean Mensa has shot down such requests arguing that the ordinary Ghanaian is already overburdened.

‘In Ghana, it is the government of Ghana that funds our election in its totality. So I do not think that the imposition of election tax will be something that the people of Ghana will take lightly because we are already over-taxed. And you know that we do have a lot of resources and with efficient management, we should be able to fund our elections”, she said recently.

Don’t starve EC of funds – Analyst warns

Meanwhile, a governance Analyst, Dr Eric Oduro Osae has cautioned government against starving the Electoral Commission of much-needed funds in its quest to wean the country off donor support for the 2020 election.

Speaking to Citi News, Dr Osae insisted that irrespective of the source of funding, the government must put the electoral commission in the right financial state to deliver credible elections.