The additional electoral areas were also due to the increasing population in the region.

When approved, the total number of electoral areas in the region would increase from the current 1,058 to 1,243.

The number of constituencies, however, still remains unchanged. Currently, the region has 47 constituencies.

Stakeholders’ meeting

At a stakeholders’ meeting last Thursday, the Ashanti Regional Director of EC, Mr Serebour Quaicoe, entreated his district’s electoral officers to have thorough engagements with the stakeholders in their various districts for the naming of the electoral areas.

The meeting was attended by representativess from the political parties, the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), the Regional Peace Council, the media and other civil organisations.

Mr Quaicoe said there should be a broad consultation with the local people, especially the chiefs, in the selection and location of the electoral areas before the Legislative Instrument (LI) would be developed and sent to Parliament.

That, he said, would ensure peace and cooperation with the EC during elections.

Replacement of Voter’s ID card

Meanwhile, the commission has suspended the replacement of missing Voter’s ID cards in the region until further notice.

The commission is deploying its Voter Management System (VMS) machines to the Northern Region to help in the limited registration exercise for the pending referendum to split the region.

According to Mr Quaicoe, most of the regions had had additional districts created and most of them did not have district electoral offices.

He explained that the decision to deploy the machines to the Northern Region was to help some of the newly created districts undertake the exercise and issue Voter ID cards to those who had turned 18 since the last registration exercise and those who for one reason or the other, could not take part in the exercise to register and cast their ballot during the referendum.

This is to enable the directorate to assist its counterpart in the Northern Region to undertake the limited voter registration for the impeding referendum.

Referendum

The EC has set December 27, 2018 for the referendum to create six new additional regions.

The affected regions are the Brong Ahafo, Volta, Western and Northern regions.