Ghanaians to elect Assembly, Unit Committee members today

Ghanaians are expected to elect their Assembly Members and Unit Committee members across the country today, December 17, 2019.

The exercise will begin from 7am and end at 5pm.

This will happen simultaneously across the country with 57,030 candidates contesting this year’s elections.

The Electoral Commission says it has already deployed some 58,000 biometric verification devices, 159,000 trained electoral officers as well as the voter registers for all polling stations across the country for the elections.

The Director of Electoral Services, Dr. Serebour Quarcoo in a Citi News interview said they expect a record voter turnout in the election.

“We have done enough and we are expecting a high response as compared to previous elections. We started district level elections in 1988 and the last one was held in 2015 and the average is 39% so I am expecting that we will go beyond that 39%.”

Meanwhile, local election observer group, CODEO, is encouraging the electorate to actively participate in the exercise.

Acting Co-Chair, Sheikh Armiyawo Shaibu says this is necessary to ensure quality in local governance.

“CODEO urges all voters to vote for competent persons regardless of age, gender or disability. Voters should also obey electoral laws in the country to support free, fair and credible elections.”

CODEO has about 1,000 election observers sent out to observe the electoral process.

About 48,000 security personnel making up the National Elections Security Task Force (NESTF) has also been deployed to ensure safety at polling stations and collation centres across the country.

The personnel are from the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana National Fire Service, and the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority.