Two hundred thousand election officials who were engaged by the Electoral Commission (EC) for the conduct of the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections are yet to be paid their allowances.
This is due to the delay by the Ministry of Finance in releasing the money to the EC for onward payment to the returning officers, presiding officers and ballot paper issuers.
Following the delay in the payment of their allowances, some of the election officials have placed calls to threaten the EC, but the government has given an assurance that part payment will be made to them this week.
The Head of Communications at the EC, Mr Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the government approved the amount (running into hundreds of Ghana cedis) for the election officials, printers and suppliers before the elections.
However, he said, the ministry was yet to release the money to the EC to enable it to effect payment to the election officials, printers and suppliers.
He, therefore, asked the election officials to rest assured that they would get their allowances as soon as the money was released to the EC.
The services that the officials rendered included checking of names, verification of voters, application of indelible ink on the fingers of voters, counting of votes cast and tabulation of results of both the presidential and the parliamentary elections.
