Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) Jean Mensa said the 2020 General Election was transparent, credible, peaceful and serve as inspiration to the countries in the sub-region.
She also denied assertions that some 7 deaths that were recorded during the election, are blamable on the EC, rejecting the 2020 election-related violence.
“Sadly seven lives were lost and though this did not occur at our polling nor arise at as misconduct on our part, one life lost is one too many. We are confident that our security agencies will share their investigations and recommendations for future learnings,” Jean Mensa told members of the ECOWAS Parliament.
Speaking at a High level ECOWAS Parliamentary Seminar at Winneba in the Central region, Mrs. Mensa said last year’s General election has proven that elections in the sub region can be run efficiently in spite of the odds and challenges.
Mrs. Mensa regretted the 7 lives lost during the polls. She said although the deaths did not occur at the EC’s polling stations or arose out of misconduct on the part of the Commission, she asked the security agencies to release its findings.
The EC Chairperson disclosed that the Commission saved the nation 90 million dollars in organizing the election due to the cost saving measures it adopted.
“Indeed, our elections of 2020 were solely financed by the government of Ghana. I am happy to note, that this reduced the cost of our election by 41% compared to 2016 notwithstanding inflation and price highs and the fact that we incurred additional cost owing to the COVID-19 protocols we deployed throughout the election”.
She added that “We cut the cost per voter from 13 dollars per head in 2016 to 7 dollars 70 cents per head at the time when the cost of elections is rising world over. Needless to say, these were no easy feat, it took the herculean effort of our entire team and the helping hand of the almighty God to establish these achievements. We were met with many challenges but we surmounted most of them and those we could not overcome we learnt from them”.
