We expect smooth, seamless District Level Elections – EC

The Electoral Commission says it has deployed adequate electoral materials and personnel to facilitate the smooth conduct of Tuesday's District Level Elections (DLE). The Elections, which will be held in more than 38,000 polling stations across the country, are scheduled to commence at 07:00 hours and close at 17:00 hours on Tuesday, December 19, 2023. Addressing a press conference in Accra on Monday, Mrs Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of EC, said ballot papers had been printed and dispatched, adding that 116, 741 election officials had been trained and deployed. She said 71, 775 biometric verification devices had also been deployed to ensure that each voter was verified before they cast their ballot. Mrs Mensa said the Commission had engaged the Ghana Police Service to provide adequate security personnel at all the polling stations. 'We've also deployed well-trained technicians to the regions to the various zonal centres to provide technical support should that become necessary,' she said. Statistics Th e District Level Elections will be held in all 271 districts across the country, except the Nkoranza North and Nkoranza South in the Bono East Region. The EC explained that the tenure of assembly members and unit committee members in Nkoranza North and Nkoranza South will expire in 2025, hence their exclusion. Assembly members and unit committee members have a four-year tenure, and those elected in December 2019 will expire at the end of the year. Data obtained from the EC indicates that the election will be held in 6,215 electoral areas. A total of 18,580 persons are contesting the District Assembly Elections, of which 17, 474 (94 per cent) are male whiles 1,106 (6 per cent) are female. On the other hand, some 46, 336 persons are vying for unit committee positions, out of which 40, 923 (88.3 per cent) are male and 5,413 (11.7 per cent) are female. Voting Mrs Mensa said persons whose Voter I.D. cards were missing could visit their polling stations to verify their details in the register and cast their vote. She said the Commission had provided tactile ballot jackets with ballot papers for visually impaired persons. Mrs Mensa said the election results would be collated at the respective electoral area collation centres, adding that winners of the two elections would be declared immediately at the collation centres. She urged the public to participate in the elections to ensure an improvement in voter turnout. 'We entreat all Ghanaians to go to their polling stations to cast their vote. We have put in place adequate arrangements, and we believe that the elections will go on smoothly and seamlessly without a hitch.' Mrs Mensa said. Source: Ghana News Agency