Tamale, Dec. 15, GNA- All is set for Tuesday's District Assembly Elections in four of the six districts in Dagbon in the Northern Region. Elections will be held in Savelugu/Nanton, Tolon/Kumbungu, Gushiegu/Karaga and Zabzugu/Tatale.

Mr Isaac Kofi Asomaning, Northern Regional Director of the Electoral Commission told the GNA in an interview in Tamale on Monday, that 421 candidates including five women are contesting the elections in the four districts.

Giving the breakdown, Mr Asomaning said 112 candidates including two women are contesting in the 36 electoral areas in Savelugu/Nanton District while 119 candidates including one woman are vying for assembly seats from the 42 electoral areas in Tolon/Kumbungu.

He said in Gushiegu/Karaga, 112 candidates including one woman are contesting in the 42 electoral areas while 78 contestants including a woman are fighting it out in the 30 electoral areas in Zabzugu/Tatale. On the number of registered voters as at 2000, Mr Asomaning said there are 48,181 voters in Savelugu/Nanton, 68,864 in Tolon/Kumbungu, 57,524 in Gushiegu/Karaga and 41,300 voters in Zabzugu/Tatale.

The Regional Director said the Electoral Commission had dispatched all the necessary electoral materials to the four districts while security personnel had also been deployed to ensure peaceful elections. The District Assembly elections were suspended in Dagbon following the imposition of a state of emergency in the area as a result of the chieftaincy crisis.

The government, however, lifted the emergency in the four districts to pave way for the elections following improvement in the security situation in those districts.

The state of emergency is still in force in the Tamale Municipality and the Yendi District.