The Western Regional Directorate of the Electoral Commission (EC) has taken delivery of ballot papers for the District Level Elections (DLE) for all the 17 districts of the Region, Mr Steve Opoku Mensah, Regional Director of the Commission, said on Tuesday.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a visit to the offices of the Commission at Sekondi, he said the ballot papers were being
distributed to the districts for the election on December 30 2010.
Mr Opoku-Mensah said ballot papers for the Unit Committee elections have not arrived and expressed the hope that they would be in on time for the elections.
Asked what happens when the ballot papers for the Unit Committee was still delaying, the Western Regional Electoral Officer said “voting would
take place only when ballot papers for both are ready”.
Mr Opoku-Mensah said democracy was expensive not in monetary terms but in terms of the sacrifices that would have to be made by the citizenry adding that the electorate would have to forgo the enjoyment of one Christmas and help to elect responsible assembly members, who would help to bring development to their localities and districts.
He said the situation demanded that the election be held during the Christmas period.
Mr Opoku-Mensah said a total of 1,555 including 86 females were vying for the District Level Elections while 4,741 including 447 women are also contesting at the Unit Committee Level. He said the Western Region had 544 electoral areas.