Tv3network.com wishes to retract portions of the story headlined: “New voters’ register will cost Ghana 900 million dollars – EC,” which was erroneously attributed to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Charlotte Osei.
We wish to state that nowhere did the Chairperson say it would cost Ghana 900 million dollars to produce a new voters’ register.
We, however, wish to state that it was the Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu who claimed on the floor of the House that it would cost Ghana GHC 900 million to produce a new voters’ register.
“And we have been told that if we are going to do a re-registration, the amount involved is going to be around 900 million. The 900 million then is going to give us something, using the current rate, about 234 million dollars, which will then give us about 15 dollars per capita” – Osei Kyei Mensa Bonsu claimed.
The chairperson of the EC, however, did not confirm or deny the claim by the minority except to say that “the use of technology comes at a very high cost,” which she said has caused figures for elections to shore up over the years.
Watch what the minority said and the response from the EC chair. https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?allowfullscreen=true&app_id=&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df3dffb39f6401a4%26domain%3Dtv3network.com%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Ftv3network.com%252Ff12d0aded89049a%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=669&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fnewsontv3%2Fvideos%2F1194992497196790%2F&locale=en_GB&sdk=joey
Read below, a response from the EC to Frankling Cudjoe of IMANI Ghana after he had sought clarification from the Commission.
“Dear Franklin,
Thank you for your email. I would like to suggest that in future, please check the accuracy of media reports with the institution before writing a reaction and sharing it publicly.
It is untrue that we said a new register would cost $900m. Yesterday in Parliament we also shared in detail, the cost differences between elections in Ghana and other countries in the sub region and indeed the UK. There are several events and expenses we incur in Ghana that do not happen in the sub region and the U.K. The UK for instance does not have a biometric register or verification system. The structure of their election is structurally very different from Ghana’s.
Again, having this context would help for a structured and purposeful analysis. Sharing our budget publicly at this time may also not be too helpful. For instance, we are in major negotiations with vendors and potential suppliers for election related procurement. As we agreed with the finance ministry and the special budget committee of Parliament, there are savings we hope to make during the procurement process. It would not be helpful for suppliers to know the amounts in the budget until we have concluded the procurement process.
The Commision’s detailed budgeted I must add, has been discussed seven times with the Special Budget Committee of Parliament and the finance ministry, several other meetings with the technical committee of the finance ministry and the full House of Parliament between July and December 2015.
We would urge some restraint before we all come to conclusions. Have a lovely day..
Warm regards,…”
By 3news.com