Only 15% of persons in Greater Accra turnout for districts level elections – IDEG

Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Kwesi Jonah has lamented at the low participation in district level elections by persons living in Greater Accra.

According to him, the low participation shows that people are not generally interested in anything pertaining to local government because many do not access services from the district level.

“If you check the district level elections data, Greater Accra alone always has the lowest turnout and sometimes only 15 percent of registered voters participate in the local level elections,” Dr. Kwesi Jonah said this in an interview with GhanaWeb on the sidelines of the Inaugural release of Ghana Round 8 (2019) Afrobarometer survey in Accra on Tuesday, November 12.

Dr Jonah however, cautioned that combining a referendum with a district level election that requires a high threshold of a 40 percent turnout and a 70 percent ‘Yes’ vote poses a risk.

“There are people who already do not want to participate in a referendum that they barely even understand and we need to create awareness for this upcoming December 17 referendum, otherwise the district level elections will depress the turnout,” he explained.

December 17 Referendum

On December 17, 2019, Ghanaians will make the decision of choosing to vote 'YES or a NO' on whether political parties should be given the right to pick candidates and promote them to be elected as District Chief Executives (DCE's), Assemblymen or Unit Committee Members.

The referendum will also decide on whether whoever gets into the office of a DCE, Assemblymen or Unit Committee Member should be elected by the general Ghanaian electorate.