District Assembly elections postponed indefinitely
Lack of money for district level elections means the exercise which is 8 months away will be postponed indefinitely.
“Even though we had intended to do the elections in October, now it will be impossible, it indicates the importance of timely release of funds”, Chairman of the EC Dr. Kwadwo Afari Djan, said.
According to the 1994 District Assembly Elections Act 473, “elections to a District Assembly shall be held every four years except that District Assembly elections shall be held at least six months apart from parliamentary elections”.
But in the wake of funding constraints, Afari-Gyan says he is unclear about when the election will be organized in the 216 Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies.
This lament over the delay of funds is not new. It is an incessant chorus by the Commission about feet-dragging by government in the release of funds.
The district assembly elections is a non-partisan, grassroot decision-making process to chose representatives and unit committee members.
But voter turnout in these elections have been progressively low and plagued with organizational challenges.
The last district elections organised in 2010, the Electoral Commission rescheduled the District Assembly elections in 8 out 10 regions in Ghana.
Central and Upper West were held on 28 December 2010 while the remaining 8 regions will now take place on the 29 and 30 December.
This has been attributed to the inability of printing firms to complete the printing of ballot papers for all the ten regions.
Electoral observers reported errors on ballot papers and in voter registers, late arrival of election material.