NCCE calls for pragmatic strategies to whip up interest in assembly polls

The dwindling turnout at district level elections calls for pragmatic and concerted strategies to reverse the trend, the Afigya Kwabre District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Wilberforce Zangina, has stated.

That, he believes, would nurture and consolidate the country’s democracy, especially the district level elections which began in 1988.

PNDC Law 207

Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Law 207 in 1988 provided the legal framework for the new Local Government System and every four years, Ghanaians go to the polls to elect people under free and fair elections to undertake local governance.

Speaking at focus group discussions at Kodie and a community durbar at Aduman in the Afigya Kwabre District in the Ashanti Region, the NCCE director said in order to check the dwindling turnout at the elections, the NCCE with support from the European Union (EU) found it necessary to invite all stakeholders to a consultative meeting to increase voter turnout, especially in the upcoming elections.

He said both focus group discussions and the community durbar were demonstration and commitment by the NCCE and EU to whip up interest among participants and by extension, the citizenry to participate effectively in the assembly elections and subsequent ones.

“It is disheartening to note that since its inception (the District Level Elections in 1988), the turnout has been dwindling every four years according to the Electoral Commission,” he stated.

Local knowledge

Mr Zangina noted that tapping into the intellectual resources associated with indigenous knowledge was also relevant and indispensable for good governance and sustainable development.

In attendance at the discussion were faith-based organisations, security agencies, representatives of political parties, youth activists, aspiring assembly members and traditional leaders.

The Director of Programmes, NCCE, Mr Samuel Akuamoah, with reference to Article 1 of the 1992 Constitution, said: “Sovereignty resides with the people” and that it was incumbent on the electorate to vote for competent assembly member aspirants who could help bring development to their areas.

The Ashanti Regional Director, NCCE, Alhaji Alhassan Yakubu, who advised political parties to refrain from supporting and campaigning for assembly member aspirants, emphasised the need to vote for more women and persons with disabilities (PWDs) to participate in decision making at the district level.

A four-point resolution adopted by participants at the end of the focus group discussion stressed on the need for peaceful elections, voting for women and PWDs, the need to motivate the electorate to participate massively in the election and the need for support from both the NCCE and the Electoral Commission.