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.
I will be voting later this morning to elect Assembly and Unit Committee Members for my electoral area in Bole.
It is our civic duty. Go out and Vote.
Your vote in the district level elections matters.
Let's work together to shape the future of our communities.…
— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) December 19, 2023
The Electoral Commission (EC) has declared that it is prepared for the district level elections in the interim.
The electoral competition features 66,257 candidates total—18,755 assembly member candidates and 47,502 unit committee member candidates—as they compete for assembly and unit committee positions, with over 66,000 candidates.
6,215 electoral areas covering 216 metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies will see these candidates compete.
Relatedly, 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.
A research study conducted by the Center for Decentralization Advocacy (CeDA), revealed that while 8,846 of the candidates are affiliated with the NPP, 8,474 of them are pro-NDC candidates.
It said only 1,435 of the candidates are affiliated with other political parties or politically non-aligned.
According to the studies, some of the candidates are Electoral Area Coordinators and Polling Station Executives of the New NPP while others are Branch and Ward Executives of the NDC.
According to CeDA, the figures are from data compiled from 6,215 electoral areas across the country.
The research, which started on September 11, 2023, sought to find out whether District Assembly Elections are truly non-partisan, the extent to which the political affiliations of nominees affect their chances of winning, and the overt and covert activities by political parties to influence the successes of these candidates.
