Election-related activities of NCCE to stall for lack of funding

Election-related activities of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) may be suspended in the run-up to the 2020 elections due to lack of funding.

This is because the European Union (EU) that provides funds for the commission to undertake its activities which have been in place since 2012 will run out by the end of the year.

Failure of successive governments to prioritise activities of the commission is to blame for the current turn of events.

According to Josephine Nkrumah, the Chairperson of NCCE, about 90 per cent of their election-related activities, which mainly covered programmes and activities to educate and sensitise the citizenry had been funded by the EU.

“If you look at what has transpired over the last few elections, there has been little funding from the government, we have been funded by the European Union during 2012 elections and the 2016 district level and general elections.

“The grant title has come to an end, in the near future if the commission is going to fund it activities, it means money will be going into rigorous election, sensitisation and education in anticipation of 2020 general election.

“The Constitution directs that the commission is supposed to be funded by the government from consolidated fund, but we have complement of our development partners supporting and assisting us from various aspect.

“For the last seven years, our consistent partner has been the European Union, however, our government gives us part of what we are to get under the ceiling they compel us to operate under.

“The ceiling is inadequate, releases are not timely, it is important the commission is properly funded, I think for a long time, we are not priority to our governments, we are constantly and consistently fighting to stay above waters,” Ms Nkrumah lamented.

She appealed to other development partners to come to their aid especially at a time where vigilantism was hovering around in order not to mar the conduct of next year’s polls saying, “The commission cannot sit down for it to happen, we are looking at specific collaborations, we can continue to talk to other development partners if we can get support and assistance from them.

“Development partners hold the view as a country, we should be able to hold our own electoral activities and programmes without their support and assistance,” Ms Nkrumah stressed. -citinewsroom.com