Upper West Region records high voter turn out

Busa (UWR), Dec. 28, GNA - The District Level Election in some rural communities in the Upper West Region, has recorded high voter turn out contrarily to speculation that the low publicity of the process would creat= e voter apathy.

This came to light when Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and Alhaji Issahaque Salia , Regional Minister toured some of the communities to assess the voting pattern in the Wa East and Wa West Districts. Madam Saadatu Maida, Member of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge of the Region and Mr Yahaya Mahama, Regional Director of the Commission accompanied the two Ministers.

Alhaji Salia cast his vote at Manwe, his hometown in the Wa East District while Mr Chireh exercise his franchise at Lassia-Tuolu, where he hails from in the Wa West District.

Alhaji Salia and the two EC officials visited a number of polling stations in the Wa Municipality before moving to the rural areas. At the Circuit Court Polling Station, only three persons have cast their votes out of 874 registered voters as at 0735 hours. The Environmental Polling Station 93A" recorded 10 votes out of 891 registered voters while at Environmental Polling Station 93B" seven pers= ons had cast their votes out of 849 voters' population as at 0749 hours. The two Ministers expressed surprise at the high voters turn out in th= e rural communities they visited.

As at 0835 hours 84 voters had exercised their franchise at Busa Primary School Polling Station 93A" out of the 757 voter- population whi= le 100 persons had cast their votes at Busa Primary School Polling Station 93= B" out of 798 registered voters.

At Manwe Primary School Polling Station 93A" where Alhaji Salia cas= t his vote, 61 persons had exercised their franchise out 170 total voters. Fifty-two persons had voted out of 545 registered voters at the Loggu Temporal Booth 93A" Polling Station while 91 persons had also cast their votes at Loggu Temporal Booth 93B" Polling Station as at 0940 hours. At Lassia-Tuolu Primary School Polling Station where Mr Chireh voted, 179 persons had exercised their franchise out of 282 registered voters as a= t 1035 hours.

Alhaji Salia noted: 93What we have experienced meant that the message= on the elections had gone down well with the people." Mr Chireh said the District Assembly Election was a localised and non-political activity and should not be compared to that of the Presidential and Parliamentary elections.