The Electoral
Commission (EC) has assured that barring any unforeseen challenges delivering
electoral materials to polling stations for Tuesday’s district level elections
will be smooth since materials have already been dispatched to the regions.
It explained that electoral materials could not
be sent to polling stations before the election day, hence officers had come
out with plans that would ensure prompt and swift delivery of materials to
polling stations on election day.
Unlike general elections where the Commission
takes charge of all the processes, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural
Development is in charge of organisation and planning of District Assembly
elections.
Dr Serebour
Quaicoe, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, made these known, at a
Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) /STAR-Ghana sponsored programme dubbed: ‘We
the People’, in Accra, which focused on
a successful December 17, 2019 district level elections.
He said a maximum of twelve candidates could
contest for assembly elections, whereas a maximum of 25 candidates could
contest the Unit Committee poll, voters could select only one candidate for the
assembly elections with five for the unit committee.
”The ballots will be counted at collation
centres within the electoral area, simple pass the ballot will be used to
declare winners, which means candidates can win with difference of one vote, EC
on other hand takes care of Constitutional Instruments for electoral areas to
be updated on voter register, exhibition, and nomination.
“In electoral
areas where candidates vying as unit committee members are less than five
candidates stand unopposed, to cut down cost EC provides common platform where
candidates collaborate with Deputy Returning Officers in charge of Special
Duties to come up with plan suitable to electoral area to make vision known to
residents.
“Notices of polls have been pasted at
visible areas within electoral areas which the electorate should look out for
them since our policy of giving preferential treatment to People Living with
Disability by not joining queues at polling stations, I encourage them to seek
assistance from presiding officers who have been mandated to give them help.
“Pivotal role of assembly and unit committee
members to local development is of essence, we must go out in our numbers to
elect competent people to represent us at the local level,” Dr Quaicoe
intimated. -gbcghanaonline.com
