Election 2020 is the first election to be fully funded by the government since democracy was restored in the country in 1992.
It is one election which had no donor funding to support the election management processes, the Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Jean Mensa, has disclosed.
Disclosing this at the opening ceremony of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) workshop on the 2020 election in Accra yesterday, she urged Ghanaians to recognise and celebrate the achievements of the 2020 electoral process.
Mrs Mensa said beyond that feat, which needed to be celebrated, the processes leading to the 2020 election also involved a number of best practices that must be documented to serve as a guide for future elections.
“It is important that we recognise the feats we achieved through the 2020 electoral processes for the purpose of documenting best practices and experience and ensuring that the successful strategies we adopted do not fall through the cracks of inordinate fault-finding and critique,” she said.
Some of the achievements include the successful use of biometric technology to ensure that only unique individuals were registered to vote; doing away with the phenomenon of double registration and multiple voting; the deployment of technology to enable a section of Ghanaians to check their registration details over the mobile phone and check their registration details all through to election day and reducing the cost of the election by 41 per cent, compared to the 2016 election (reduced the cost of the election from $13 per person to $7.7 and thereby saving the country $90 million).
The two-day workshop, which ends today, has brought together actors and stakeholders in the country’s political space, including civil society organisations (CSOs), to take stock of the processes, strategies and approaches that were adopted for the 2020 election.
It will also discuss areas that need to be strengthened and build consensus on a reform agenda for the EC for future elections.
Some notable personalities who were present at the workshop were the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr John Boadu, and the National Campaign Manager for the NPP in the 2020 elections, Mr Peter Mac Manu.
There were also a former running mate to an independent presidential candidate, Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah, and the Founder of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Madam Akua Donkor.
Missing from the workshop were representatives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The workshop is being held four months after the December 2020 elections.
