No woman files to contest upcoming Lower Manya Krobo District Assembly Elections

Correspondence from Eastern Region

The trend of women shying away from seeking political and competitive public service positions continues as no female is among 127 district assembly member aspirants seeking to be elected to represent their respective electoral areas in the upcoming local assembly elections in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.

The Lower Manya Krobo District Assembly elections scheduled for Tuesday, 17th January 2023 to elect new Assembly and unit committee members for another four years, have no female candidates contesting as Assembly members, making the event an all-male contest.

The situation means the next district assembly will yet again be inaugurated without any female representative.

The number is slightly encouraging in the unit committee elections where 36 out of the 244 contesting for the positions are women.

A visit by GhanaWeb to the district electoral commission office revealed that though one woman, Miss Hawa Yakubu, a 44-year-old seamstress initially filed to contest as Assemblywoman for Agomanya-South Electoral Area and thereby making her the only female aspirant, she has officially notified the Commission of her intention to withdraw from the contest citing internal party issues.

Some prominent female personalities in the area in an interview with GhanaWeb expressed their disdain at the lack of female participation in district assembly elections in the area.

Manye Angmorkuor Yoko I, development queen mother of the Manya Klo State is one of several prominent indigenous Krobo women challenging women to take up roles in male-dominated areas including the district assemblies to break the barriers and make an impact in those fields of endeavor.

Speaking in an interview, the queen mother who observed that women were not involved in the process, attributed the situation to the lack of support for females who seek to hold such offices.

According to her, assisting women to unearth their inborn leadership qualities was the surest factor to encourage them to take a bold step into such contests.

“From a distance, people just need support,” she said. “We must build our environment in such a way that we must be there for each other, identify strengths of the people that we live with, see how we can unearth the leadership qualities.”

One way of encouraging women towards seeking political office, the development queen mother noted was by bringing the women together to engage in various developmental activities and through that empowering them towards this venture.

The inclusion of women in district assembly elections, Manye Angmorkuor Yoko added would complement the efforts of the men.

She stressed that there was a need to search for women with leadership traits such as honesty, empathy, and commitment to assist them to unearth their leadership potential.

Asked if women with these traits were not getting the needed assistance and encouragement, she said, “I don’t think they’re getting it. People may quietly have the desire within but they need people to push them nurture the desire, and develop them.”

Adding her voice to the call, NPP constituency women organizer for Lower Manya Krobo, Miss Gifty Ambasaki attributed the situation to the “bullying” meted out to women who seek political office.

According to her, though women were capable of holding any position, those who ventured into the territory are denigrated which serves as a disincentive for others with similar ambitions.

“It has not been easy because years back, women in politics have been bullied because whenever a woman is in politics, they think you’re a prostitute or something and because of the bullying most women feel shy to the political front,” she Miss Ambasaki.

She was however convinced that the situation was improving and called on her fellow women to aspire to participate in the process.

Miss Ambasaki said, “we’re still encouraging the women to involve themselves in every election right from district assembly, any election at all, women should partake so that we get more women in our democracy.”

The constituency women organizer while urging females to strive to take up the mantle however called for an end to the bullying of women during such contests.

The election which is expected to be keenly contested will see some serving assembly members competing against some new faces.

The odd district assembly election calendar for the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly was occasioned by a boundary dispute which delayed the polls for close to three years with the election being organized in December 2013 instead of February 2011 following the dissolution of the previous Assembly in 2010.