Dr Roger Oppong Koranteng, Governance Advisor, Common Wealth Secretariat United Kingdom, says the spirit among Ghanaians towards the participation of District Level Election (DLE) is not encouraging.
Dr Koranteng made the remarks on Thursday at a media launch of the 2015 DLE theme song by National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in Accra.
He noted that during the last four years election, he could recount that only 30 per cent of the country’s population participated with majority of the figures coming from Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions while Greater Accra region representation was 18 per cent.
He said the NCCE which is one of the constitutional bodies noted for educating the public as well as increasing democracy needs support to boost its work and facilitate Ghana’s democratic development.
Mrs Charlotte Osei, Chariman NCCE, observed that the primary goal of the launch was to work with the media to help raise awareness that would enable the public to appreciate the roles they play towards the country’s development through elections and to get them to actively part take in the this year’s DLE election extensively.
“We are working with the media to ignite the people for a more decent turnout during the election on March 3.
“We must be focused on the district assembly governance system as pragmatic goals can be achieved when we develop a positive spirit towards our district assembly elections since is through these elections, that important developmental goals can be met,” she said.
She said the NCCE would be working with faith based religions to get all citizens engaged and involved to promote the DLE.
“We will also get closer with community based groups by educating and engaging them in various meetings for worthwhile goals to be achieved,” she added.
The theme song comes in five different languages.
According to the 1994 District Assembly Elections Act 473, “elections to a district assembly shall be held every four years, except that the elections shall be held at least six months away from parliamentary elections”.
Source: GhanaWeb
