Ghanaians have been urged to demand accountability on the cost incurred by the state in conducting national elections.
According to Solidare Ghana, a group focused on governance, there was the need for Ghanaians to know how state resources were being used for elections to ascertain whether taxes have been put to good use or not.
"We seek to encourage Ghanaians to demand the government to account to the nation the cost incurred by the state in engineering and conducting the recently-held Assin North by-election," a statement signed and issued by Benjamin Essuman, Executive Director of Solidare Ghana, in Accra yesterday said.
It noted that a publication of such expenses would inform the Ghanaian taxpayer on how scarce resources were being used and demand a change if necessary.
"This demand for accountability emanates from the fact that Ghanaians in exercise of their free choice, vote governments to superintend over the affairs of the state and bring about development in the lives of the people, and more importantly to do so in judicious manner.
Therefore, it is important for the media, academia, traditional authorities, civil society and all concerned players in the nation building effort, to demand publication of the cost incurred in the conduct of such a forced electioneering exercise in order to help inform the Ghanaian taxpayer and help determine whether the taxes paid to the government have been put to a good use or not, the statement added.
It described the recent Assin North Constituency by-election and its associated electioneering campaign as a financial loss to the state
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"Besides the manpower lost in three weeks over the electioneering campaign, it is our considered view that the cost born by the Electoral Commission of Ghana, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Armed Forces, and all other state institutions, including the office of the President and Vice President, in the conduct of this Assin North by-election runs into millions of cedis, which the Ghanaian taxpayer has paid for.
The financial losses recorded as a result of this completely avoidable by-election are indeed irrecoverable," the statement said.
In a cash-crunch economy like that of Ghana's, it said it was unconscionable for the government to pursue a matter that leads to huge cost to the taxpayer, and yields no dividends towards the lives of the people.
The statement further explained that the action of the government was in breach of the social contract with Ghanaians to better manage the resources of state and bring about development in the lives of the people.
"The mandate given to the government is not to dissipate the inadequate public resources in pursuit of the partisan interest of the ruling party," it stated.
The statement also said that the resources used for the by-election could have been put to a better use in providing a medical facility for some deprived communities, fix broken bridges, or build six-unit classroom blocks to rescue some schools under trees.
