Member of Parliament for Tamale South under the National Democratic Congress (NDC),  Haruna Iddrisu, is advocating for an increase in the budgetary allocation for the Electoral Commission (EC) outlined in the 2024 Budget Statement, which currently stands at GH¢786 million.

Expressing his concerns, he deems the allocated GH¢786 million as significantly insufficient, emphasizing that the Electoral Commission requires more resources to effectively conduct the District Assemblies Election scheduled for December and the subsequent Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in December of the following year.

This call for an increased budgetary allocation was presented by the Tamale South Lawmaker during his contribution to the ongoing debate on the 2024 Budget on the floor of Parliament in Accra.

“And Mr Speaker, this is what has been provided for them in the Budget, go and make a case for them, it is not enough.”

Speaking about the electoral body's voter registration process, Mr. Iddrisu mentioned that the Minority had been vehemently arguing in the House that the EC should not proceed with voter registration in the absence of the Guarantor System.

He pointed out that while the EC had been promoting the use of the Ghana Card for voter registration and that no one was opposed to its use, it needed to be made widely available so that every Ghanaian could obtain one before the minority would be willing to support its use for voter registration.

“Mr Speaker, it is revealed in the just ended limited Voters ‘Registration exercise that 61 per cent of people who registered were from the guarantor system, which meant that 900 thousand were registered, 550,000 would not have been registered, if this House hadn’t insisted that the right thing must be done.”

He emphasized that if Parliament hadn't insisted on doing the right thing, the 550,000 individuals who registered through the Guarantor System would have faced disenfranchisement.

Mr. Iddrisu urged both the House and the Government to prioritize allocating sufficient resources to the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Identification Authority. The latter is mandated by law to issue the Ghana Card to Ghanaians.

Appealing to the finance minister, he called for the fulfillment of the promise to allocate adequate resources to these two bodies, enabling them to successfully accomplish their respective tasks.