Court injunctions, absence of materials put affected electoral areas on hold
This year’s District Level Elections (DLEs) ended successfully across the country, but not without challenges which marred the beauty and disrupted the smooth running of the exercise.
Low voter turnout, delay in the arrival of materials, inability of the Electoral Commission (EC) to deliver voting materials to some polling stations, delay in the start of voting exercise in some polling stations characterised the exercise and soiled its beauty.
For instance, elections in five electoral areas in the Cape Coast Metropolis have been put on hold by the Electoral Commission because voting materials of the affected areas were not included in the materials supplied.
The affected electoral areas are Kru Town, Turom, Tamesase, University Newsite (Kwaprow) and Atsifi-Eyifua.
Also, court injunctions in some regions such as Ashanti and Eastern, Volta and Greater Accra led to the postponement of the elections in some polling stations across the country.
The 2023 DLEs are taking place in 6,125 electoral areas across 216 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (excluding North and South in the Bono East Region) have drawn participation from over 66,000 individuals vying for positions in district assembly and unit committee.
Kingsley Asare reports from Gakorpe in the Ga West Municipality that the voting exercise here was peaceful but there was slight delay in the delivery of voting materials.
In the two polling stations visited by the Ghanaian Times, namely Redeemed Church Ehukorpe A, and Redeemed Church Ehukorpe B, there were a handful of people who had come to exercise their franchise in this year’s DLEs.
The presence of security personnel from the Ghana Police and Fire Service provided order and the voters went about the voting process peacefully.
At the Redeemed Church Ehukorpe A Polling Station, the voting exercise started at 8 a.m.
The Presiding Officer, Joseph Kobina Mensah, said the car conveying voting materials to the Polling Station broke down, the reason why the voting exercise delayed for an hour.
Mr Mensah said there were 450 eligible voters in the register and as of 8 a.m when the Ghanaian Times got to the polling station no voter had casted his or her vote.
The first voter in that polling started casted his vote around 8:15 when the setup of the Polling Station had been completed.
The Presiding Officer for the Redeemed Church Ehukorpe B Polling Station, Joseph Nartey, said the voting exercise started at 8 a.m instead of 7 a.m because the voting materials arrived an hour late because of the breakdown of the vehicle which was bringing the voting materials.
Mr Nartey said there were 449 on the roll and was hopeful all the eligible voters would turn out to cast their votes.
Agnes Owusu reports from the Kantsein Electoral area in the Okaikwei South Constituency that the exercise there recorded low voter turnout when the Ghanaian Times visited some of the polling stations.
When the reporter got to the polling stations at 7 a.m it was observed that a few of the registered voters had turned up to cast their votes.
An official of the Electoral Commission, Mr Daniel Ofori-Yeboah, at the Kantseian electoral area in an interview with the Ghanaian Times bemoaned the low voter turnout as compared to the Presidential and Parliamentary elections.