District-Level Elections’ timetable to be out next week

Dr Serebour Quaicoe, Director of Electoral-Services at the Electoral Commission (EC) has assured Ghanaians that the 2023 District-Level Elections (DLEs) would be held this year.

He said, his Office (the Department for Electoral-Services), had submitted its proposal for the conduct of the Elections to the Commission for consideration and approval; and that hopefully, the Commission would be meeting next week to come out with a tentative date and timetable for the DLEs.

On June 15, Mr. Samuel Tettey, a Deputy Chairman of the EC in-charge of Operations, announced that the EC had picked October 3, 2023, as the date for the conduct of the DLEs for the election of assembly members and unit committee members.

However, Dr Quaicoe, speaking at National Stakeholders Dialogue on the Upcoming DLE, which was organized by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), noted that Commission would be meeting next week to come out a tentative date for the DLEs.

The Stakeholders’ Dialogue was organized by the CDD-Ghana in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development and the GIZ Ghana.

He said in November, last year, the EC submitted its budget proposals to Parliament for approval, which had since been approved by the House.

“If you remember, we were thinking of developing a new CI (Constitutional Instrument), till now as you are all aware, we are having a challenge with the proposed new CI,” he stated.
“Because we were saying that due to the abuse of the guarantor system, we wanted to take it off (the list of requirements for new voters’ registration), and that reflected in our budget programme, now that that has become an issue, I want to assure all of you that God willing we will have the elections.”

Dr Quaicoe said the Commission would look at the new CI when it was done with this year’s DLEs.

He said the EC would be doing the registration of new voters, as well as organise voter’s register exhibition.

He said according to their estimations, every year, about 500,000 new voters qualify for registration and that if one takes the period 2021 to 2023, about 1.5 million new voters qualify to be registered.

He said their system was such that they could even take a period of one week to register all the newly qualified voters.

He said the previous DLEs were held around 17th December; so, if the pending one was held around the same period it would be in order.

He, however, assured Ghanaians that Commission would be coming out with the tentative date next week.

He said there was no way they could pass the new CI before this year’s District-Level Elections; saying “because even if you put it before Parliament, you will need 21 sitting days, not 21 days (for it to mature), so automatically, we cannot do that now.”

“We will do new registration, do the exhibition and do the elections.”

Concerning the availability of resources for this year’s DLEs, he said their budget was an activity-based budget and that funds would be made available by the Government as and when they embarked upon their activities.

Mr. Paul N.K. Aborampah-Mensah, Programmes Manager, CDD-Ghana, said there was the need for Ghana to have a fixed date for Local Government Elections, so that all stakeholders could work towards that.

He also admonished stakeholders and District Assemblies to organize more robust education on DLEs to eradicate voter apathy.

District Assembly Elections are held every four years to elect electoral area representatives to the District Assemblies.

Professor Emmanuel Debrah, Director of the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy, University of Ghana, in his presentation on an assessment of the last two local government elections, identified inadequate funding, late release of resources for election activities, rushed implementation of election timetable, logistical constraints, and poor remuneration for temporary election officials as the main challenges recorded in the DLEs.

Mr. Kokro Amankwah, the General Secretary of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), reiterated that the DLEs mobilised human resources than any other election in Ghana to make a choice and promote inclusivity.

He said, however, only 579 women were appointed out of over 6,200 electorates, highlighting institutional and cultural barriers that prevent women from participating despite many government interventions.