Once again, it has dawn on our nation and the Electoral Commission to organise what has come tobe known in all circles as the District Level Elections which is now popularly known by citizens of our country but there has been a major setback which I sincerely believe that if not taken into consideration will totally undermine the creditably of our election.
In as much as possible, though the Electoral Commission together with it sub-agencies who are suppose to educate Ghanaians on the importance of the Unit Committee and the District Election in particular are to a larger extent performing their required roles and responsibilities to the good of the people of Ghana,much need tobe done if the supposed election will thrive successfully as compared to the one in the CUBA STATE.I want to outline few of the reasons which I believe is causing such a low turnout.
To start with, funding should be made available from the Electoral Commission towards the enhancement of the aspirant’s financial base in order to campaign effectively and efficiently. Whiles we all know from our constitution that, such elections are non-partisan, simple knowledge can tell all nuke and cranny around about certain major political parties who are taking advantage of this very situation to “buy” the candidates who by virtue of one reason or the other which may be incapacitated to finance their campaign. This particular practice goes in a long way to discourage well discerning minded people who by their nature will not think around political lines in order to advise themselves by staying away from the election entirely.
It is also common knowledge that the District Assembly elections are to be run on non-partisan basis. Yet the major political parties have hidden behind some candidates with sponsorship in the form of Cash, T-Shirts, posters etc.These day’s aspirants even make huge donation to churches and charity with it attendant huge media coverage.
I can say without any fears whatsoever that the ruling NPP and the opposition are the most guilty of this electoral infraction. We can also not pretend to be unaware of the huge sponsorship that candidates at ‘NUGS’ elections get from political parties. Even though this is not the subject for discussion, it is stated to bring to bare the hypocrisy of our politicians who aver their likeness for the rule of law but fraudulently break our electoral laws.
According to my understanding, i want to suggest that the Electoral Commission should support the campaign programmes of the aspirants or leave it entirely with the political parties since gradually that is the focus the people are going after. From my own experience , during the recent election organised, many if not all the aspirants were campaigning on pure political lines of which I believe it is appalling.
Moreover, the number of people aspiring for the Unit Committees is also very huge. Previously, people vote for only Unit Committee member on the printed ballot paper but now, one has to vote for all the number of candidates contesting which I believe is also discouraging in this regard but at the same time I want to suggest that, the Unit Committee aspect of vote should be scrap off since it is just a waste of time and resources on the economy.
The elections even though it had a low voter turnout, was successful because it was generally peaceful, challenges to the results were minimal ,it was devoid of intimidation and finally the objective of electing a representative of each electoral area was achieved. I therefore want to take this opportunity to commend the government as well as the Electoral Commission for the able manner in which their work has been done. In our quest to promote governance at local level which is the basis for our cherished democracy. Let us all support the effort of the Electoral Commission in particular to achieve its main goal the next time.
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