Blame EC! �Over Low Voter Turnout Of Assembly Election

Apathy has once again characterised the level of participation in the District Assembly elections to choose Assembly men and women across the country. A visit by this paper in various polling stations revealed that the low turn was as a result of the twice postponement of the elections; which many electorates say the Electoral Commission (EC) should be blamed for the low publicity. The postponement lowered the interest of the voting populace in the country and also failure in distribution of electoral materials on time killed the elections, the paper found. That aside, the election was characterised by violence, assault, and demonstrations in various parts of the country. A polling agent at the Bimbisec polling centre in the Nanumba North District of the Northern Region was slapped by a voter when he tried to stop him from voting twice. In the Western Region, for instance, residents staged a protest against the elections. The residents of Kansaworado in Sekondi-Takoradi were angered by the last-minute disqualification of one of the aspirants, which according to them, came with no tangible reason. The situation is not different at the Kwabre East district in Ashanti Region. Security officials there had to intervene to disperse angry voters who besieged the Assembly office following the suspension of voting at the Kenyasi West electoral area At Ayawaso East Constituency in the Greater Accra Region the election witnessed a low turnout in most of the polling stations. Mr Ernest Simons, an election official in an interview with section of the media said the late start of the polls was due to the inability of the Presiding Officers to collect their logistics on time. Mr Simons said the Ayawaso East has 33 polling stations, and expressed optimism that with the presence of the security personnel, there would be peaceful election. He said seven candidates are contesting the District Assembly Election while five are vying for the Unit Committee positions. As at 0920 hours, only six electorates had voted at the Godson International School, 16 at the St Kizito Catholic Church with 18 at Duniya Centre. Mr Saeed Mohammed Sani, Presiding Officer, Godson International Centre said though the polling station had been divided into �A� and �B� only the register for �A� had arrived but could not assign any reason for the delay in the coming of the other register. Some of the electorate expressed worry about the delay because they could not wait for long as they had other pressing engagements to attend to. �The Presiding Officer said my name is not in the register and asked me to wait for the another register but I cannot wait any longer, am going to work, this will not bring money to me,� Abba Ninsin, a voter said. �No wonder the patronage is low, imaging you arrive at the polling station and you are told your name is in the next register which is yet to arrive, would you expect me to wait, the district elections will continue to witness low attendance if these prevailing issues continues�, she lamented. It could be recalled however, that a survey conducted by the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) suggests that Ghanaians are generally not interested in district assembly and unit committee elections. This was contained in a report from a Pre-Election phase survey of the district assembly electoral process in which 86 districts were randomly selected across the country. According to Prof. Miranda Greenstreet, Co-Chair for CODEO, the report revealed that most Ghanaians did not know much about the district assembly elections. �Some members of the public also displayed limited knowledge on the concept of local government and consequently the need for them to vote in the local government elections,� she stated. Prof Greenstreet, attributed the lack of interest in the district assembly and unit committee elections to the rescheduling of the date from March 3 to today, September 1. She expressed concern about the delays associated with the conduct of the district assembly elections and wondered if such delays would have political and legal implications on local governance. �Over the years, the country�s management of district assembly elections has not been the best and such attitudes affect local governance and undermine effective grassroots democracy. It is important that as a country, we pay particular attention to our district level elections and make it more attractive to deepen citizens� participation in local governance,� she said.