District Assembly elections: EC to sanction Political candidates

Politics of Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Source: Starrfmonline.com

Voteballot

The Electoral Commission has warned it will cancel the candidature of persons who solicit the support of political parties in the upcoming District Assembly elections.

The District Assembly elections, by law, is not supposed to be partisan but there are growing concerns of interference by political parties.

According to the 1994 District Assembly Elections Act 473, “elections to a District Assembly shall be held every four years except that District Assembly elections shall be held at least six months apart from parliamentary elections”.

The elections which was supposed to be held in October 2014 was postponed to March this year due to financial and organisational constrains.

Speaking to Starr News, the Public Affairs Director of the EC Christian Owusu Parry said the Commission will not tolerate the involvement of political parties in the polls.

The district assembly election is a non-partisan, grassroots decision-making process to choose representatives and unit committee members.

But voter turnout have been progressively low and plagued with organizational challenges.