EC Better Off Under JJ- Claims Afari-Gyan

THE ELECTORAL Commission (EC) was best resourced under ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, says Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner.

'This commission underwent tremendous development under Jerry Rawlings. Since then, the development has slowed down,' he told DAILY GUIDE in an exclusive interview in his office.

Dr. Afari-Gyan is apparently unhappy with the altitude of successive governments that took over after Mr. Rawlings' administration which ended in 2000.

He feels successive governments have not invested enough in building the capacity and structures of the EC outside the mandatory election budget.

'For example, by law, we are supposed to be in every district, some governments have been providing more money for us for the building of district structures than others…Some governments have been very cooperative in trying to provide us with facilities that make us truly independent,' he said ostensibly referring to Jerry Rawlings' administration.

Since Jerry Rawlings' regime ended in 2000, two different administrations have taken over the running of the country; the New Patriotic Party (NPP) from 2000 to 2008 and the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) which has been in power since 2009.

Implicitly, these two administrations have not been able to match Jerry Rawlings' interest in building the basic structures of the EC, he said.

The EC has often been caught in serious running battles with successive governments for the release of funds for its operations.

Meanwhile, the EC boss who would be retiring after the 2012 elections says he is generally satisfied with election funding of all governments that have steered the affairs of the country since 1992, albeit they have no choice but to comply fully with constitutional provisions that compel governments to adequately fund elections based on the recommendations of the EC.

 'The laws that establish the commission, the set up is such that our legitimate expenditures are legitimate bills for the government to pay, so every government will pay the legitimate bills of the commission, there have been no quarrels about that,' he says.

He however notes that most past administrations have fallen short in terms of timing the release of these all-important funds.

'What has been the difference has been in the timing of the release of funds from the government,' he complained adding however that the cost of elections might be the main factor disrupting free-flow of the needed funds for elections.

'Elections are very costly activities and very few governments will have all the money required for an election to give to you at one time, so you normally negotiate with the government for phased releases of the monies,' he notes.

Meanwhile, he says President Atta Mills' government has been quite cooperative in releasing funds for this year's election, 'Yes they have been very timely in their releases, in fact for the first time in our history-before we even started the exercise, we were given seed money of GH¢50 million, this is the first time that that has happened… and since then, the releases have been on schedule,' he concedes.

It is estimated that the 2012 elections would gulp about GH¢243 million.  A large the large chunk of the funds - approximately GH¢150 million-will be used for the biometric registration exercise alone.

By Raphael Adeniran