By Christopher Tetteh, GNA
Sunyani, Dec. 17, GNA - The cancellation of the referendum to amend Article 55 Clause (3) of the 1992 Constitution to make the District Level Elections (DLEs) partisan may have contributed to the poor voter turnout in the DLEs.
A cross section of the electorate in the Sunyani Township interviewed by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday argued that the publicity about the Referendum and the Assembly/Unit Committee Elections emphasised most on the Referendum.
“Its unexpected cancellation, therefore, killed the enthusiasm within the electorate to participate in the entire exercise,” Mr Kwabena Dwomo, a candidate’s agent at the St. Mary's JHS Polling Centre, said.
He said a number of voters he had engaged stated that they were discouraged and thus refused to cast their ballots because they were more interested in the DLEs.
"Many people thought the whole election was called off and thus closed their minds to it,” he said.
Mr Dwomo expressed worry that education and information was not intensive enough and that most of the electorate might not have understood the dynamics in the exercise, downplaying its significance.
As at 1300 hours at both polling stations A and B with 1,015 registered voters at the St. Mary's JHS Centre, only 76 voters had gone to vote.
Mr Dwomo described the low voter turnout as “very pathetic and not healthy for the democratic development of the country”.
At Meredane Centre A and B, 117 votes had been recorded out of 1,605 in the voters register as at 1237 hours, Nana Agyenim Boateng, the Presiding Officer at the Meredane Centre ‘A’, said.
GNA
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