Ghanaians not ready for ‘election tax’ – EC Chair

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa has shot down requests for her outfit to push for the introduction of special taxes to fund elections in the country.

According to her, such a move would not be prudent since Ghanaians are already saddled with numerous taxes.

Ghana depends on support from donor partners and central government to fund its parliamentary, presidential and local assembly elections.

Speaking at the West Africa Media Excellence Awards 2019 Conference in Accra today, Friday, under the theme ‘Social media, fake news and elections in Africa’, Jean Mensa said the ordinary Ghanaian is overburdened hence, the imposition of a new tax will not be welcoming.

“In Ghana, it is the government of Ghana that funds our election in its totality. So I do not think that the imposition of election tax will be something that the people of Ghana will take lightly because we are already over-taxed. And you know that we do have a lot of resources and with efficient management, we should be able to fund our elections.”

The EC Chair made the remark in response to a question posed her by some participants at the forum.

In another development, Jean Mensa said, in an attempt to counter fake news ahead of elections in 2020, her outfit is putting measures in place to tackle the issue head on.

Madam Jean Mensa indicated that the Commission has on several occasions received its own share of fake news and negative impacts of social media which reduces the integrity of the Commission.

She said the EC is building a solid team to tackle fake news in the upcoming elections to enhance the credibility of the polls.