The Upper East Regional Office of the Electoral Commission (EC) has schooled women and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) on the upcoming District Level Elections (DLEs) and the referendum.

The sensitisation workshop was to educate the vulnerable groups to understand the impending District Assembly and Unit Committee elections and the referendum, to enable them participate.

It was on the theme, “Enhancing the participation of women and persons with disabilities in the upcoming 2019 District/Unit Committee elections and the referendum.”

On December 17, 2019, Ghana will be going to the polls to elect new Assembly members and Unit Committee members and seek to amend article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution to allow political party participation in the DLEs.

Mr Worlanyo Mensah Tegah, the Acting Upper East Regional Director of the EC, explained that the December exercise was a Constitutional requirement that would deepen the democratic credentials of the country and encouraged all stakeholders including; the women and persons living with various forms of disabilities to participate in the process.

The full participation of women and people living with disabilities in the DLEs would ensure a better turn out than previous elections’ where only a few of them were involved, he said.

To ensure that PWDs did not face any difficulties in the registration and campaign processes.

Mr Tegah said the EC put in place measures to make it easy for them to participate in the elections and encouraged them to do so.

The Acting Regional Director told the participants that currently it was unconstitutional for any political party to sponsor any candidate in the elections and that was what the referendum was seeking to amend to pave way for DLEs to be conducted on party lines.

For the proposal to succeed the referendum must record 40 per cent voter turnout and out of that number 75 per cent must vote “YES” to affirm the proposal.

The elections would be held in all the 1,317 polling stations in the region.
Madam Ivy Akuta, the Regional Gender Desk Officer at the EC said women’s participation in decision making process was not encouraging even though they were better managers of the economy.

She encouraged women to gather confidence and participate in the nationwide exercise.