Ghanaians will today go to the polls to elect their District Assembly and Unit Committee members.
In all, 57,030 nominees are contesting for the position in various districts across the country.
Out of the number, 18,510 are in the race for membership of the Assembly while 38,520 are vying for a seat on the unit committee.
Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday, Samuel Tetteh, a Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) in-Charge of Operations, said, adequate plans have been put in place for the district level elections across all 16 regions.
However, he said the exercise would not be held in three electoral areas in the Nkoransa north and south in the Bono East Region and Lower Manya Krobo in the Eastern Region.
He said about 159,000 election officials have been trained for the exercise including returning officers and deputy returning officers, returning officers special duties, technicians, main reference list officers, verification officers and ballot issuers.
Additionally, Mr Tetteh said all security
measures have been put in place and
was working with security officials to enable deployment of personnel to
polling stations across the country including flash points to ensure law and
order.
On the district level elections, he said the Commission had printed and dispatched the final voter’s register of all 31,851 polling stations while 58,000 biometric verification devices have also been refurbished and deployed to the various districts and regions.
Mr Tetteh said the devices would include back-ups which would be used to replace faulty ones while technicians have also been deployed to various zonal centres to provide technical support to polling officials when necessary.
“The Commission has also made arrangements for persons with disabilities. All eligible voters are informed that persons with disabilities are required to join long queues at the polling stations and therefore must be given the opportunity to vote anytime they arrive at the polling station,” Mr Tetteh stated.
Voting, he said, would open at 7:00am and end at 5:00pm in all polling stations across the country.
He noted
that at the end of the exercise, the Presiding officer would count and announce
the results immediately after the pools in the presence of the agents.
He urged all voters to go to their respective polling stations
to cast their votes and advised the public to refrain from acts which would
disrupt the peaceful conduct of the elections.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
