By Afedzi Abdullah, GNA
Cape Coast, Nov. 4, GNA - The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) is optimistic that political party involvement in the District Level Elections (DLEs) will whip up voter turn-out in the process.
The DLEs have often been grappling with voter apathy since its inception in 1988, a situation many stakeholders have expressed concern about.
This, the NCCE noted, was mainly due to the non-involvement of political parties and reiterated the need for Article 55(3) of the Constitution, which barred political parties from participating in DLEs to be amended to allow for a multi-partisan local government system.
Alhaji Aliu Mohamed, the Deputy Central Regional Director of the NCCE, said high voter turn-out was imperative to ensure that leaders were elected by majority decision.
Alhaji Mohamed was addressing students of the Cape Coast Nursing and Midwifery College on the upcoming DLEs and Referendum and to encourage them to participate in the effective dissemination of information on the process.
“There are implications for low voter turn-out in an election. It is important that we all take part in the electoral process. Every Ghanaian must be part of this election,” he said.
The DLEs and Referendum, slated for Tuesday, December 17, 2019, would see the election of assembly and Unit committee members.
It coincides with the referendum where Ghanaians are to vote either ‘YES’ or ‘NO' to decide if the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives must be elected.
Alhaji Mohamed said the Referendum was a constitutional requirement of 40 per cent votes from qualified voters out of which 75 per cent must vote “Yes” to make the amendment possible.
He said the Electoral Commission (EC) has selected yellow and dark brown colours to denote “YES” and “NO” respectively on the ballot paper.
Persons who wished to either transfer their votes or engage in proxy voting could do so at the District Offices of the EC across the country, he said.
He, therefore, encouraged the students to come out in their numbers to vote for people they believed were capable to lead in the communities to make the process a success.
GNA
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