Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur has expressed worry over the wastage of Ghc 317 million state funds on the district assembly elections.<\/p>\n
The money spent<\/strong><\/span><\/a> includes the EC\u2019s normal operational expenditure on the elections.<\/p>\n The local polls which were earlier scheduled for March 3rd had to be called off<\/strong><\/span><\/a> after a seven member panel of Justices of the Supreme Court declared the elections as unconstitutional.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”W3BXkHgBTelb5XZCurUQsDnpsnulZnR5″]Speaking at the opening of the regional ministers conference in Cape Coast in the Central Region the Vice President said the situation will cost the nation million of cedis since it has to raise funds again to organise another election.<\/p>\n “The thing that has happened is that we spent some money that we don’t have very much of to plan for this election. Now that money, [and I am told it is in the region of GHC310 million] is almost wasted and we have to now provide for additional resources.”<\/p>\n He said government will now have to restrategise on how “best to manage the circumstance that it is confronted with” and “devise means of extending the mandate so that there is no gap in the management of the affairs of the district assembly.”<\/p>\n Afari Gyan must resign<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile the Member of Parliament for the Effutu Constituency, Afenyo Markin has asked the EC Commissioner to resign for overseeing the wastage of over 300 million cedis on the botched district assembly elections.<\/p>\n Speaking on Eyewitness News<\/strong>, Afenyo Markin said: \u201cDr Afari Gyan and his deputies as a matter of their good conscience,their image, \u00a0have to resign.If they do not, I expect that we as Parliament will have the collective courage to start instituting processes to impeach the Chairman.”<\/p>\n He questioned why the Chairman approved the decision to spend about 300 million cedis on the local polls when there were indications it[elections] might be called off.<\/p>\n “Weren\u2019t they privy to the debate on the floor of the house which was carried by various media houses?…These are not minor mistakes that EC can say I didn’t know. We all make mistakes but this is not a small one,” he queried.<\/p>\n He also expressed the hope that situation will be seen as an opportunity to “clean up”systems at the Electoral Commission.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Marian Efe Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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