Vice National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has made a solemn call on the Electoral Commission (EC) to hold district assembly elections on weekends instead of week days.
He ascribed the low turnout of electorates in this year's district level elections to the EC's postponement of the election date to Monday, September 1, 2015.
According to him, the week days discouraged lots of Ghanaian eligible voters from casting their votes.
This is because, many Ghanaians work on week days and even when they decide to take a break from their workplaces to cast their votes; they may have to go through hectic traffic congestion.
Due to this, several electorates would not go out to elect their assembly members and this highly accounts for the low numbers.
He also added that some electorates have names registered in their home constituencies which demands that they travel to their constituencies to cast their votes.
So until the EC make the necessary changes, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo does not believe the district elections will catch the attention of Ghanaians.
“A lot of people registered in their home constituencies for the general elections. So, their names are in the registers for their home constituencies. Yesterday, his Excellency President Mahama had to go all the way to Bole to go and cast his votes and so if your vote is somewhere…this Assembly election doesn’t give you way to transfer your vote to your electoral area that you reside.
“This is one area that we believe that the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Ministry of Local Government will have to take a critical look at and see how best they could address it.” |
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