Avoid voting on family ties, select competent people instead, NCCE urges electorate

The NCCE has advised the electorate to participate and avoid voting on family ties, in the upcoming District Levels Elections (DLEs).

Instead, the commission urged the eligible voters to choose the right and competent people who could present community needs for the various District and Municipal Assemblies to capture and tackle such needs in their development by the District Level Elections Regulations, 2015 (C.I. 89), the Electoral Commission will conduct the District Level Elections on December 19, this year.

This follows the expiration of the term of the Assembly and Unit Committee Members on December 17, 2023.

Madam Adiza Gyengyenaa, the Berekum West District Director of the NCCE who gave the advice, highlighted the relevance of the DLEs, saying the elections were critical to give the constituents louder voices in the decision-making process at the local levels.

She advised the electorate to vote appropriately when they go to polls, to reduce incidences of spoilt ballots. Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of a separate sensitization forum held in some of the local communities in the District, Madam Gyengyenaa indicated high incidences of rejected ballots would compromise the outcome of the DLEs.

“We must ensure that we vote correctly in deciding our choices so that competent and right candidates would be elected to represent the people at the Assembly levels,” she stated. The District Office of the NCCE organised the separate fora at the Jinijini, Fententaa, Nkyenkyenman, Pruso, Mantukwa, and Anyinom farming communities in the district.

It further extended the sensitization to other communities, including Benkasa, Nanasuano and Abi Junction to highlight the need for the electorate to participate in the DLEs.

Madam Gyengyenaa indicated that decentralization remained integral and critical in pushing forward development at the local levels, saying, right and competent people ought to be elected to contribute meaningfully to decision making processes at the assembly levels.

The NCCE District Director said selecting the right, competent and well enlightened persons to the various Assemblies would not only help strengthen the decentralization concept, but also push the assemblies to tackle the priority and immediate needs of the local communities.

Source: GNA