Postponement Causes Significant Reduction in Women's Participation
He also proposes that the date for district level elections should not be left at the discretion of the Electoral Commission.
In furthering this, all regulatory/legal frameworks for conducting such elections should be amended in line with the general elections, and must be taken seriously since district elections form the basis of the country's governance structure and subsequently development.
Mr. Bodza, Programme Manager of Governance for Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF) made these suggestions when he spoke to Public Agenda in Accra in reaction to reports of perceived significant reduction of women's participation in the recent assembly and unit committee elections in the Central Region.
"For instance if there is a run-off during general elections, it is done within 21 days. Therefore all legal issues around assembly elections should be tailored towards general elections".
Last week, the Ghana News Agency reported Mr. Samuel Tettey, Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), as saying that there was low voter turnout in the just ended district level elections in the Central Region.
According to the GNA report, of the 1,121,748 registered voters expected to cast their ballots in the region, only 405,754 people, representing 36.1 per cent voted, showing a decline of 2.6 per cent compared to the 38.7 per cent voter turnout in the 2006 elections.
Thirty-nine (39) women as against 533 men were elected as assembly members for the 572 electoral areas in the region.
In the Unit Committee elections, 321 women against 2,350 men were elected and a total of 12 electoral areas failed to file nominations, while others did not get the required numbers for the Unit Committees, therefore such areas did not have the committees in place.
Of the 17 districts in the region, Awutu Senya and Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese recorded the highest of five women elected as assembly members each, followed by Agona West and Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa which had four women each.
Mfantsiman, Ajumako-Anyan-Essiam and Assin North recorded three women each, Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA), Efutu, Twifo-Hemang-Lower-Denkyira and Upper Denkyira East had two women each with Gomoa East and West, Agona East and Assin South having one each.
Statistics also show that a total of 7,866 ballot papers were rejected in the region during last December's polls compared to 6,702 in 2006.
Mr. Bodza deduced that although the Coalition of Women in Governance (COWIG) under WiLDAF with support from the District Chief Executive of Breman Asikuma used a local radio station to support women contestants, the EC was not forthcoming with information.
He noted that from 1994 to date, participation in district level elections have been low, but then the apathy witnessed during the recent one was due to periodic postponement of the elections and inadequate information.
"This means that if you didn't have resources to mobilize people to vote for you then you lose out. Women obviously don't have the resources; fund to support them is low. Electoral education was poor."
This, perhaps, explains why in the Cape Coast Metropolis, no woman was elected as assembly member in any of the 45 electoral areas. Women in the Upper Denkyira West District also experienced the same fate.
Concluding, Mr Bodza also suggested that a body like the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) should have representation from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, National Association of Local Government Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) and civil societies working in local governance so they can deliberate and advise the EC to avoid recurrence of mishaps.
Written by Ama A.Amankwah Baafi
Monday, 24 January 2011