The Electoral Commission (EC) has scheduled the District Level Elections (DLE) for Tuesday, December 19, 2023.
The tenure of incumbent Assembly Members elected in 2019 will end in December of this year, compelled by the election of new Assembly Members for the following four years.
Mrs. Jean Mensa, the Commission’s Chairperson, stated at a press conference in Accra on Thursday that the EC will begin the registration of new voters from September 12, 2023, to October 2, 2023, at its 268 district offices.
The EC stated that it aimed for a 60% voter turnout in this year’s DLE and urged the media to assist in raising awareness and educating the public about the importance of the exercise.
Mrs. Mensa stated that the DLE will be held in all 6,272 electoral areas except Nkoranza North and Nzoranka South in the Bono East Region.
“This is because the district-level elections for the aforementioned districts were postponed and will be held in April 2021 due to security concerns.”
“As a result, elections in both regions would not be held until 2025,” the chairperson added.
Mrs. Mensa stated that the Commission had established a full schedule of events for the next DLE, which will be made public in due time.
She urged individuals who are eligible but not on the electoral roll to participate in the approaching registration drive in order to vote in the December 19 elections.
Mrs. Mensa assured that the upcoming voter registration exercise would not be the only registration exercise before the 2024 general election.
Touching on people who had lost their voter ID cards, she said lost cards could also be replaced at all the district registration centers at GHC10.
“We state categorically that persons who have lost their ID card do not need to register again. They simply have to request for a replacement of their cards,” Mrs Mensa said.
Mr Samuel Tettey, the Deputy Chairman of the EC in Charge of Operations, said the Commission would take steps to ensure high voter participation in the DLE.
“There will be stakeholder engagements with the civil society, security agencies, faith based organisations and a massive awareness in the media and public announcements by district electoral officers,” he said.
In the last District Level Elections in 2019, 57,000 candidates contested in the 6,700 electoral areas across the country.
The DLE has since the late 1980s recorded low voter turnout. Data from the EC indicate that in 1988/89, the National Average Voter Turnout at the DLE was – 59.3 per cent; in 1994, it was 29.3 per cent; 1998, 41.6 per cent; 2002, 33.1 per cent; 2006, 39.3 per cent; 2010, 35.5 per cent; 2015, 30.6 per cent, and 2019, 33 per cent.
