The District Level Election in some rural communities in the Upper West Region, has recorded high voter turn out contrarily to speculation that the low publicity of the process would create voter apathy.
This came to light when Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and Alhaji Issahaque Salia , Regional
Minister toured some of the communities to assess the voting pattern in the Wa East and Wa West Districts.
Madam Saadatu Maida, Member of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge of the Region and Mr Yahaya Mahama, Regional Director of the Commission
accompanied the two Ministers.
Alhaji Salia cast his vote at Manwe, his hometown in the Wa East District while Mr Chireh exercise his franchise at Lassia-Tuolu, where he
hails from in the Wa West District.
Alhaji Salia and the two EC officials visited a number of polling stations in the Wa Municipality before moving to the rural areas.
At the Circuit Court Polling Station, only three persons have cast their votes out of 874 registered voters as at 0735 hours.
The Environmental Polling Station “A” recorded 10 votes out of 891 registered voters while at Environmental Polling Station “B” seven persons had cast their votes out of 849 voters’ population as at 0749 hours.
The two Ministers expressed surprise at the high voters turn out in the rural communities they visited.
As at 0835 hours 84 voters had exercised their franchise at Busa Primary School Polling Station “A” out of the 757 voter- population while
100 persons had cast their votes at Busa Primary School Polling Station “B” out of 798 registered voters.
At Manwe Primary School Polling Station “A” where Alhaji Salia cast his vote, 61 persons had exercised their franchise out 170 total voters.
Fifty-two persons had voted out of 545 registered voters at the Loggu Temporal Booth “A” Polling Station while 91 persons had also cast their votes at Loggu Temporal Booth “B” Polling Station as at 0940 hours.
At Lassia-Tuolu Primary School Polling Station where Mr Chireh voted, 179 persons had exercised their franchise out of 282 registered voters as at 1035 hours.
Alhaji Salia noted: “What we have experienced meant that the message on the elections had gone down well with the people.”
Mr Chireh said the District Assembly Election was a localised and non-political activity and should not be compared to that of the
Presidential and Parliamentary elections.