Referendum on creation of six new regions underway

By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Dec 27, GNA - The referendum on the creation of six new regions is underway in designated areas.

A total of 2,260,724 voters are expected to vote at 4,798 polling stations within the proposed areas.

The proposed areas include North East and Savannah Regions, to be carved out of the Northern Region; Bono East and Ahafo Regions from the Brong Ahafo Region.

The rest are the Western North Region out of the Western Region and the Oti Region to be carved out of the Volta Region.

Mr Yussif Alhassan Ayoba, Assistant Head of Communications of the Electoral Commission (EC), speaking to the Ghana News Agency via mobile phone from Bole in the proposed Savannah Region, said voting took off smoothly at 0700 hours across all the 4,798 polling stations of the proposed regions countrywide.

He said he had visited a number of polling stations at Bole such as Pentecost, the EC District Office and the Bole Community Centre, and that voting was going on smoothly.

He said so far everything was going on smoothly in the designated areas of the referendum.

The referendum is being conducted for eligible voters in the proposed six areas to determine whether they support the creation of a particular proposed region or not.

Eligible voters within each of the proposed regions, who intend to approve of the creation of the new region are required to thumbprint beside the colour Yellow on the corresponding thumbprint space on each ballot paper, while those who disapprove of the creation of a region should thumbprint beside the colour, Brown.

The Constitutional threshold requires that at least 50 per cent of the eligible voters must cast their votes in the referendum, and of the valid votes cast, 80 per cent must be in favour of the proposed creation of the new regions.

It would be recalled that President Akufo-Addo forwarded the recommendations of the Justice Brobbey Commission of Inquiry to the EC to hold a referendum to create six new regions.

GNA

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