The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has educated various civic groups on electoral issues as part of efforts to increase participatory democracy and good governance in the country.

Participants of the three-week long programme, which was held at the Sagnarigu District of the Northern Region, included women, youth activists, persons with disabilities, faith-based organisations, artisans’ groups and traditional authorities.

The programme, which was sponsored by the European Union, was aimed at enhancing skills of the electorate to reduce spoilt and rejected ballots, increase tolerance, as well as voters’ knowledge on issues-based voting.

Mr Abdulai Soale, Sagnarigu District Director of NCCE, who was one of the resource persons, deliberated with the participants on the right to vote and the responsibility to respect and recognize others’ rights to also vote for their preferred candidates.

Mr Soale urged the electorate to abide by the laws and regulations governing the conduct of the elections by respecting every voter’s rights, cast their votes without hindrance as well as the avoidance of wearing political party shirts on the Election Day.

He urged the electorate to be tolerant of opposing views, carefully assess manifestos and campaigns and urged them to vote for candidates with good economic, political and socio-cultural governance campaign messages.

The participants were also taken through the steps to follow when voting to avoid spoilt and rejected ballots.