President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 17th December, 2019, cast his vote in the ongoing District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections, in fulfilment of his civic duty.
President Akufo-Addo, who was accompanied by the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, was met on his arrival, at the Rock of Ages polling station ‘B’, by the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea.
In a short interview after casting his ballot, the President urged all Ghanaians to participate in the elections so “you can elect your preferred candidate onto the Assembly..
“If you sit at home, someone else will make that decision for you. So, I am urging all Ghanaians to turn out in their numbers and vote.”
Meanwhile, vice president Mahamudu Bawumia has also voted in his Walewale hometown.
In brief remarks, Vice President Bawumia urged Ghanaians to come out in their numbers to vote, pointing out that national development begins at the local level.
Candidates
More than 57,0000 candidates are contesting the nationwide District Assembly and Unit Committee elections scheduled for Tuesday, December 17.
Of the figure, 18,519 are vying to become assembly members, while 38,520 want to be in the Unit Committees.
There are a total of 6,700 electoral areas and each electoral area would be represented by one assembly member.
For the Unit Committees, 33,500 are to be elected – five for every electoral area.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the Electoral Commission’s readiness for the polls, Acting Director of Public Relations, Sylvia Annor said all was for the exercise to begin at 0700 hours and close at 1700 hours.
All the electoral materials had been distributed to the 31,500 designated polling stations across the nation, she stated.
Additionally, all the polling officials had received training and the Commission expected them to exhibit a high level of integrity and fairness as they complied with the tenets of the Electoral Laws.
The contestants of the District Assembly Elections comprise 17, 601 males and 909 are females.
At the Unit Committee level, 3,751 females are racing with 34,769 males.
Mrs. Annor urged the electorate to endeavour to cast their ballots to deepen the decentralisation of governance to facilitate national development.
Source: Daily Mail GH