Budget for the General Elections
Can you please enquire on the budgeted allocated to the Elections Office for the recent 2017 elections and also enquire on the actual cost incurred?
Auntie’s answer: I was able to get half of your question answered and decided not to wait for the rest since this is a timely topic. But I also want to stress that the full answer is not being withheld; it is simply a matter of the numbers not being completely crunched as yet.
The ever-helpful Elections Office informed me that the budget for the 2017 General Election was $1,356,250, which can be compared to the $1,180,516 actually spent on the 2013 poll.
The 2017 budget included funding for the door-to-door voter registration and the single-member electoral district verification process. An election official explained that this process “strictly speaking is not part of the normal elections programme, but was critical due to new single-member electoral districts and the changes that drove to the register of electors”.
In addition, the final accounts for this year’s election are still being prepared, so an actual number for the funds spent is not available at the moment.
I will follow up with the office to get that figure and pass it on to you in a later column.
Category: Ask Auntie, Election Questions
