Who pays for expanded party primaries? New EC deputy chair Dr. Asamoah calls for urgent IPAC talks

Newly sworn-in Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Joseph Kwaku Asamoah, has called for urgent engagement with political parties over the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling abolishing delegate-based presidential and parliamentary primaries, raising concerns about who will bear the financial burden of the new electoral arrangement.

He believes the Commission should move quickly to convene an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting to develop a practical framework for implementing the decision.

The July 29, 2026 ruling, delivered by a 5–2 majority, declared the delegate system used to select presidential and parliamentary candidates unconstitutional.

Political parties have been given one year to establish systems allowing all registered members in good standing to vote in their presidential and parliamentary primaries.

But speaking in an interview with Ekow JB on Onua TV on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Dr. Asamoah questioned how elections involving potentially much larger numbers of voters would be financed.

"The question therefore is who bears the cost of that election?" he asked.

He argued that Ghana's existing legal framework does not clearly mandate the state to finance the internal elections of political parties.

According to him, implementing the judgment will require more than simply expanding the voting register. It will demand agreed arrangements for funding and administering the elections.

He consequently wants the Commission to work with political parties to "plan how to implement the decisions that have been rendered by the Supreme Court."

The financial implications have already generated debate.

In August, NDC National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah indicated that his party alone could require between one million and two million ballot papers for its presidential and parliamentary primaries under the expanded voting arrangement.

Dr. Asamoah says the Commission must now establish the necessary modalities to give practical effect to the court's decision and integrate its implementation into Ghana's electoral system.