District Level election turn out 39 per cent — EC Chair

Turn out for this year’s district level election was about 39 per cent, which was four percentage more than that of the previous elections in 2010.

Giving an overview of the elections in Accra last Wednesday, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Charlotte Osei, and said turn out could rise to about 40 per cent if the outstanding elections were held.

She said five districts across the country had legal challenges and therefore, the EC was waiting for the court ruling before it could hold elections in those areas.

She, however, did not mention the areas which had the legal challenges.

Again, some districts had logistical challenges which denied them the opportunity of having the elections while some of the candidates tied on votes.

Mrs Osei said the EC had scheduled elections in those areas to the end of October, this year.

On the issue of spoilt ballots, Mrs Osei said it was crucial to print extra ballot papers to cater for spoilt ballots.

She said the IPAC agreed at the meeting that the extra ballots should be pegged at 10 per cent as the commission was increasing polling stations across the country to 30,000.