In certain electoral areas in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions, the district-level elections have been rescheduled by the Electoral Commission (EC).
Information that is currently available indicates that the development is the result of technical issues with the EC’s contractors’ ballot printing.
Several districts, including Bantama, South Sontreso, Atwima Nwabiagya, Atwima Mponua, Dadeso, and Santasi, will not be taking part in the exercise today, according to a report from JoyNews’ correspondent in the Ashanti region.
These regions are not participating in the exercise because the Electoral Commission is taking longer than expected to deliver the voting materials.
The EC’s acting head of public relations, Michael Boadu, signed a statement on behalf of the Commission stating that the exercise is set to take place on Thursday, December 21, 2023, in the affected areas.
With the exception of Nkoranza North and South in the Bono East Region, 6,215 electoral areas across 216 metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies were anticipated to be covered by the exercise.
In the District Level Elections, over 66,000 candidates are running for District Assembly and Unit Committee seats.
According to EC data, there are 66,257 candidates in total—18,755 for assembly members and 47,502 for unit committee members.
Of the 18,755 candidates running for assembly, 17, 474 are men, or 94% of the total, and 1,106 are women, or 6%.
Meanwhile, out of a total of 18,755 candidates who have filed to contest the District Assembly Elections scheduled for today, an alarming 17,320 of them are publicly known political party functionaries working for either the New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at the electoral area level.
In a related news, Ghanaians are being urged to participate fully in today’s, December 19, district-level elections by former president John Dramani Mahama.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer stressed the civic duty of citizens to take part in the electoral process in a social media post.
He emphasized the importance of each vote and urged Ghanaians to vote carefully in the district-level elections.
