Tomorrow is the day for Ghanaians to vote in district-level elections (DLEs) to elect people to represent them in the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies (MMDAs), collectively known as district assemblies.
They are also to elect Unit Committee members for the various electoral areas.
All things being equal, voting is expected to begin at 7 a.m. tomorrow and close officially at 5p.m. but as usual, if there should be some voters in a queue, they will be allowed to cast their votes.
We, however, implore voters to go to the voting centres early enough so that the polls can end at 5p.m., for counting of votes to begin on schedule.
It is 10 hours from 7 a.m. to 5p.m. and so we have to imagine how it feels for the elections officials to be stuck at one place for just the voting before the counting of votes.
Let remember the axiom “Do unto others what you want others to do to you” and go to vote early enough to save the officials some of the trouble like stress.
After all, the Deputy Chair of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, says with the adequate preparations so far made, a voter would spend less than five minutes to cast his or her vote once they get to the table to go through the process.
Like the Presidential and Parliamentary elections held in the country, the DLEs are held every four years.
However, unlike the presidential and parliamentary elections, the DLEs are not patronised as expected.
So far the highest turnout is 59.3 per cent recorded in 1988/89, whereas the highest for the Presidential and parliamentary elections achieved in 2004 was over 80 per cent.
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Ms Jean Mensa, had earlier said her outfit was targeting at least 60 per cent turnout in tomorrow’s elections.
However, Dr Bossman-Asare says a 70-per cent turnout is expected as compared to 50 per cent on December 17, 2019.
We see this as the affirmation of the fact that the Commission has done all it could for the target be achieved.
We are particularly encouraged by the fact that voters who have misplaced their Voter’s Card would just have to give their full names to the EC officials who will identify them by their surnames on the voters’ register and they are set to cast their ballot after going through the Biometric Verification system.
We hope other voter challenges can thus easily be resolved.
Whatever the case is, we implore registered voters to turn out in their numbers to elect the candidates that appeal to them as the ones who can best serve them.
It is our conviction that probably the people have not seen their aspirations being met by the assemblies, which is why they do not take keen interest in the DLEs.
Perhaps, the people must be educated the more on the importance of the district assembly system and the need for them to idolise it and demand accountability from the assembly members and their respective MMDAs.
They should understand that the district assemblies were introduced to allow the people’s participation in governance at the local level and for the assemblies to guide the socio-economic development of their jurisdictions.
