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Constitutional bodies charged with the conduct of elections in Africa need to be provided with adequate financial resources and be made to remain financially autonomous to discharge their duties impartially.

Professor Atahiru Mohamadu Jega, former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria, said they should not be seen “going cup in hand to the executive for money, since that could compromise their neutrality”.

Speaking at the second session of the first in a series of public lectures being organized by the Institute of Economics Affairs (IEA) to mark its 25th anniversary, he said it should not be lost on anybody that credible elections were costly.

The state should therefore be prepared to make available the necessary resources to aid the electoral bodies to exert their neutrality in the performance of their constitutional mandate.

Prof Jega said elections must be seen as uniting the people to choose leaders who could work to transform their lives.

The electoral commission must therefore be strong and resilient to develop credible processes and reforms to produce free, fair and acceptable elections results.

He said more attention should be given to preparations by identifying challenges and developing ideas to address these.

Prof Jega reminded Ghana that it had a unique opportunity to conduct successful polls in 2016, since it had a lot of lessons to learn from its previous elections and those of other African countries.

The Executive Director of IEA, Mrs. Jeane Mensah, said the 2012 election petition exposed a number of challenges in the country’s electoral system, which required to be tackled with sense of urgency.

She made reference to recommendations for reforms by the judges in areas of voter documentation, voter registration and polling station supervision among others and said these needed to be acted on.