UWR excludes twenty-three electoral areas from DLEs

The Electoral Commission (EC) says it will not conduct the upcoming District Level Elections (DLEs) in 23 Electoral Areas and 83 polling stations in the Upper West Region because aspirants in those areas are going unopposed.

The EC said there were a total of 293 electoral areas and 1,222 polling stations in all 11 constituencies of the region.

Three electoral areas each in the Wa, Jirapa, and Sissala East Municipalities will not participate in the elections.

Seven electoral areas in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, two each in the Nandom and Sissala West Districts, and one each in the Wa East, Lawra, and Lambussie districts would not also take part in the election.

Mr Osman Ali, the Upper West Regional Director of the EC, revealed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Wa on Monday on the readiness of the Commission on the election scheduled for December 19, 2023.

He explained that plans were advanced for the conduct of the DLEs in all participating electoral areas in the region.

Mr Ali said the electoral materials and logistics, security, and human resources were all ready for the exercise.

Speaking about the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) for the election, the Regional EC Boss indicated that all polling stations had spare BVDs and a fully charged power bank to cater for any unforeseen emergencies that might arise with the BVDs during the exercise.

He said security personnel had been deployed to all the areas where there would be elections.
“We need the cooperation of all to make the election successful devoid,” he indicated and entreated all eligible voters to participate in the election.

A total of 730 people had filed to contest for the District Assembly elections with 24 of them being females, while 1,897 candidates including 64 females had filed nominations to contest in the Unit Committee elections in the Upper West region.

Mr Ali said the EC had recruited and trained a total of 3,417 officials to ensure smooth, professional, and efficient conduct of the elections.