NCCE Must Intensify Education On Elections

Mr Alfred Ekow Gyan, the Deputy Western Region Minister, on Tuesday said the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) must intensify public education ahead of any future elections in the country to whip up voter interest and patronage. He made the call after visiting some of the polling stations in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis which showed very low voter turn-out in the morning. Mr Gyan urged the NCCE to actively involve the major stakeholders in public education to create the awareness on the need to exercise their civic responsibility which goes a long way to deepen Local governance. On public assumption that the election day should have been declared a holiday, the Deputy Minister said this is a case for the policy makers to have a second look at, as that would be used as a benchmark to determine the public interest in the assembly elections. "However, if the turn out remained the same after putting in measures, then it has to do with attitude,” he said. None of the 12 polling stations visited by the Deputy Minister had recorded about 80 voter turn-out just some few minutes to 12 noon and he expressed worry about it. Mr Gyan, therefore, urged those who had cast their votes to encourage others to exercise their franchise as it was mandatory for all to exercise their civic responsibility. Some of the 12 polling stations visited included Yensuado, Asafo,Etsewase, and Amanful East. Mr Gyan expresed the hope that patronage would increase before the close of voting as some of the presiding officers indicated that some people had promised to go to work first before returning to vote. Some of the presiding officers attributed the low turn-out to inadequate education, lack of interest and apathy while majority of the people interviewed said they had not benefitted from the district assembly concept. Meanwhile, they said they received their voting materials on time for the process to begin on schedule.

Source: GNA