The election of regional representatives onto the Council of State is scheduled to be held across the nation today, Thursday, February 16. Most of the elections will be held at the regional coordinating council offices.

Others will be held at the regional offices of the Electoral Commission, Ghana. The ten representatives to be elected after Thursday will join the appointed and ex-officio members to counsel President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as per Article 89 of the 1992 Constitution.

Among the contestants are Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II’s Mawerehene, who is standing in the Ashanti Region, and Former Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament Enoch Teye Mensah, who is contesting in the Greater Accra Region.

Aspirants must be citizens of Ghana, of sound mind, registered voters and a resident in the region they seek to represent. A person shall not be qualified to be elected as a regional representative to the Council if they have been adjudged or otherwise declared bankrupt under any law in force in Ghana and has not been discharged. A candidate must also not have been convicted for high crime under the Constitution or high treason or for an offence involving the security of the state, fraud, dishonesty, moral turpitude or for any other offence punishable by death or by sentence of not less than ten years.

He or she must not have been found by the report of a Commission or Committee of Inquiry to be incompetent to hold public office or is a person in respect of whom a Commission or Committee of Inquiry has found out that while being in public office he or she acquired assets unlawfully or defrauded the state or misused his office or acted in a manner prejudicial to the interest of the state and the findings have not been set aside on an appeal or judicial review.

Candidates must not be under the sentence of death or the sentence of imprisonment imposed on them by any court.