Registration of new voters resumes in Chereponi District

Registration of new voters resumed in the Chereponi District in the Northern Region on Sunday, September 16, 2018 after an initial halt in the limited registration exercise which began that morning.

The exercise started at 7 a.m. in all the districts in the country that will form part of the proposed new regions to be created.

The exercise in the proposed Savannah and North East regions that are to be carved out of the Northern Region began with a low turnout, but in Chereponi, it was halted by the chief of the area on the grounds that he owed allegiance to the Dagbon Traditional Area and, therefore, could not be part of the proposed North East Region which is made up of the chiefs and people of the Mamprugu Traditional Area.

Reasons for the stand-off

The chief of Chereponi claimed enough consultations were not done before they were added to the yet-to-be-created North East Region and for that matter nobody could force them to be part of the new region.

The chief stated further that he and his subjects preferred to be with the Dagbon Traditional Area which had Yendi as the traditional capital and also remained with the existing Northern Region.

Peaceful resolution

However, the stand-off was amicably resolved by the District Security Committee chaired by the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Chereponi, Mr Tahidu Abdul Razak, for the exercise to resume five hours after it began last Sunday.

Mr Razak, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said after the meeting, the chief agreed for the exercise to resume in the area and there was no cause for alarm, adding that additional security personnel had been deployed to the registration centre in the district to ensure the success of the programme.

The acting Northern Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr Benjamin Bano-Bioh, also in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the chief of Chereponi halted the registration exercise in the district in the morning but it resumed at 11 a.m. after the DISEC met with him.

The exercise

Touching on the entire exercise in the 11 districts to form the proposed Savannah and North East regions, Mr Bano-Bioh said the exercise took off smoothly in the entire districts with a low turnout except the stand-off at Chereponi which was resolved.