EC ready for referendum on creation of new regions

The Electoral Commission (EC) on Monday said its ready for the conduct of the referendum scheduled for Thursday, December 27 for the creation of six new Regions – Oti, North East, Savannah, Ahafo, Bono East and Western North.

Mr Yussif Alhassan Ayoba, the EC Assistant Head of Communications, said the Commission was currently holding training programmes for its staff towards the conduct of the referendum.

He said the training exercise covers electoral officers such as Presiding Officers, Verification Officers and the Polling Assistants; adding that, training of electoral officials was one of the major steps in the electoral process.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Mr Ayoba said in all, the total number of polling stations in the six regions was 4,571.

The regional distributions of the polling stations are Bono East 1,137; Ahafo 661; Western North 947; Oti – 779; Savannah 557 and North East 490.

He said application for Proxy Voting and the application for Transfer of Votes came to a close last week Thursday, December 6.

He said in terms of logistics too, the Commission was very much set; declaring that “most of the materials that we will need for the referendum had gone to the various regions and to the districts.

“It is just left with a few that we think by the 20th (of December) all the materials needed for the exercise should be in the districts”.

Mr Ayoba said voting would commence on December 27, at 0700 hours and ends at 1700 hours.

He noted that any voter, who would be in the queue at the close of the day at 1700 would be permitted to vote.

Mr Ayoba urged eligible voters in the affected regions to come out and exercise their franchise in the referendum.