The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), says it requires about of GH¢861,000 for its educational drive for this year’s general election slated for Sunday, December 7. Its programme will include the production and distribution of literature, posters and handouts, media activities as well as public fora particularly on voting procedures to help reduce the high percentage of ballot papers that are destroyed during elections. Even though the request made to government has not yet been fulfilled, the Commission is depending on its existing budget of GH¢2.1 billion for the year provided by the government, said deputy Chairperson in charge of programmes, Augustina Akosua Akumanyi. She was speaking to the Times in response to a concern raised at a colloquium by the Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Joseph R. A. Ayee, on the huge number of ballot papers that were recorded as waste in every election period. Mrs Akumanyi said that even though nationwide education was conducted, some voters still commit mistakes. She, however, said voters who commit genuine mistakes on their ballot papers can request for new ballot papers from the polling assistants. Prof. Ayee expressed the concern when he delivered a paper at the colloquium organised by the Faculty of Social Studies, as part of activities marking the 60th anniversary of the University of Ghana. It was on the topic, "Overview of Elections, Democracy and Development under the Fourth Republic in Ghana’. He said the ballot papers cost the government millions of cedis to produce and it was sad for volumes of ballot papers to be recorded as waste. For instance, he said, in the 2004 general elections, 188,123 ballot papers representing 2.13 percent were destroyed while 104,214 which represented 1.58 percent of ballot papers were destroyed in 2002. In 1996, he said a total of 111,108 ballot papers representing 1.53 per cent were destroyed. Prof. Ayee said that when few ballot papers were destroyed in 1992, the public thought this figure will reduce but rather it keeps on increasing. He said that education is key to building a conducive political climate, adding that a healthy political culture thrives on a well structured system of political education. He noted that efforts at public education were ad hoc and piecemeal and the perception that it is the NCCE alone which has to conduct public education, is not right. "This perception is wrong because public education is one of the functions of both political parties and the Electoral Commission’. ‘With the exception of the EC which in the past had conducted public education in the area of voting, the political parties had not performed this responsibility, which they must now be made to take on", Prof. Ayee said. He said the 2008 elections will be an exciting one, but at the same time, it will be a test of resilience and robustness of Ghana’s democracy, saying that the parties, the EC and indeed, all citizens must ensure that the country passes the test to live up to its accolade as the black star of Africa. Prof. Ayee said elections have been part of government, politics and society in Ghana before and after independence. This, he said, was evident by the number of both national and local government elections, adding that Ghana had had 10 national elections, seven local elections and five referenda or plebiscites. There is a strong link between elections, democracy and development, which he described as Siamese triplets. He said when elections are conducted in a violent free manner, it helps to promote socio-economic development, foster and promote good governance. Source: The Ghanaian Times