A policy group, Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA), says it is worried about the preparedness of the Electoral Commission and other relevant stakeholders for the District Level Elections (DLE).
CLGA stated that it has yet to receive any official communication or information on the DLE from the EC, although, by law, the Commission has until December 2023 to conduct the elections.
Upon engaging key stakeholders, including the EC, civil society organizations, academia, local governance experts, and the media in a one-day forum, it was found that the commitment of the assembly members is bound to recede after the elections in 2022, hence affecting the usefulness of the elections.
The forum also noticed a general apathy in the elections, as reflected in prior years as compared to the general elections. It revealed that while the turnout for the 2015 elections was 30.6%, a turnout of 33.6% was recorded for 2023. This, the forum posited, affected the quality and competency of people elected to the assemblies.
In addition, women and persons with disabilities were found to be marginalized when it came to the district-level elections.
“The DLEs have consistently had low participation from marginalized groups. Very few women are elected during the DLEs, and even very few to no people with disabilities get elected or appointed. Statistics from the year Statistics from the 2019 district-level elections indicate that out of the 38,500 unit committee members who contested the elections, 91.9% were males and only 8.1% were females. Similarly, in the Assembly member elections, out of 18,500 Assembly members who contested, 17,600, representing 95%, were males, and only 900, representing 5%, were females.”
CLGA called on the EC, NCCE, CSOs, media and Ghanaians in general to spark enthusiasm and participation in the DLEs while encouraging the effective participation of women and other marginalized groups, especially persons with disabilities.
It further called on the EC to ensure that data on voter turnout is disaggregated to facilitate effective analysis.
