Oti region: 11 out of over 700 voted at 4pm in Akpafu

High voter apathy hit the Akpafu community where the referendum was being held for the creation of the Oti region out of the Volta region on Thursday, December 27, 2018

Turnout at the polls there has been abysmal with the community members solidly united against voting either YES or NO.

As of 4:00pm 3news.com’s correspondent Komla Klutse reports that only 11 people had voted out of the about 709 registered voters.

The proposed Oti region would have 9 districts, 815 polling stations. They have a total 365,373 registered voters and needed 50% turnout which translates into 182,686. The Oti region can only be created if 80% of the at least 182,686 voter turnout vote YES, thus 146,148 YES votes.

Elders at Akpafu, a mostly farming community, however, told 3news.com they are not against the creation of the Oti region.

Rather, they said they are not in favour of being considered under the region as they prefer to be under the Hohoe municipality which is in the Volta region.

A referendum was held in four regions of the country out of the six new regions would be created. The proposed regions are:

“We didn’t petition against the creation of the Oti region; we are not voting because we don’t want to be separated from Hohoe, we were founders of Hohoe municipality and we can’t be sent outside,” an elder told Komla.

Another maintained that it is the right of the people affected by the Oti region to vote for YES as he acknowledged the difficulty some go through to get to the regional capital, “so it is good for them but we are not” interested.