Ghana’s elections governing body, the Electoral Commission has warned it may not be able to conduct district level elections next year due to funding challenges.

The Commission says a referendum on the 1992 constitution next year also risks being postponed unless government releases 186 million Ghana cedis needed for the exercises.

The EC says government’s decision to cut its budget of 327 million by half will seriously affect preparations towards the 2016 Presidential and Parliament elections.

Joy FM’s Parliamentary Correspondent Elton John Brobbey reported the Electoral Commission as saying that its plans to reduce the number of people who cast their vote at the polling station by expanding the number of polling stations from 26,000 to 47,000 are under threat.

The EC which was in Parliament to defend its budget, said it may not also be able to implement a provision that requires all voters to be biometrically verified being allowed to cast their ballot.

The requirement was introduced as a measure to enhance the integrity of the country’s elections but the EC says implementing it will require additional 70,000 biometric verification machines which must be delivered by April 2014.

The EC said the issue of funding has become even more precarious because the biometric verification machines used for the 2012 elections are deteriorating at a faster rate because of a lack of appropriate warehousing facilities to store the kits.

The damaged machines would have to be replaced before the next elections, the officials noted, and recommended that proper warehouses must be built to effectively store the machines for future use.

Members of Parliament are worried about the decision by government to cut the budget of the EC. They have suggested that the EC presents it budget directly to the president who will make his recommendations.

More soon.