Wa, Dec. 17, GNA – The District Assembly and the Unit Committee Elections started smoothly in the Upper West Region but with low turnout at most of the centres the Ghana News Agency visited.
At the Wa School for the Deaf (WADEAF) polling station, 28 people had cast their ballot as at 0740 hours out of the 650 in the register while some students were in the queue to exercise their franchise.
Mr Gilbert Akugre, the Presiding Officer, told the GNA that voting started at exactly 0700 hours since all materials were ready.
He expressed worry about the low turnout saying; “I am wondering why as at this time no one had come from the community to vote apart from the students queuing and I believe people don’t have interest in the exercise as compared to Parliamentary and Presidential elections”.
He attributed the situation to the low voter education since some people in the community did not know elections were ongoing.
At the Kabanye JHS Polling Station, as at 0814 eleven people had cast their vote out of the total of 711 registered with only three people in the queue.
Madam Sarah Bachuri, the Presiding Officer, told the GNA that the Assembly member was contesting unopposed and that nine persons were contesting for the Unit Committee elections and attributed the low turnout to the absence of the assembly member position in the area.
Sixteen people had voted at the St. Andrew Polling Station as at 0840 hours while only eight were in the queue with a total of number of 485 registered.
At the Kaleo Local Authority Primary School, seven people had voted as at 0715 hours out of 575 registered voters with no queue in sight.
Mr Salifu Kaatoore, the Presiding Officer attributed the low turnout to the cold weather and low voter education and expressed the hope that people would come out to vote when the weather became better.
At the Mamgu Bishop Primary School, as at 0815 hours there was a long queue but voting had not started because there was no stamp to validate the ballot paper.
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