113 File for Council of State as EC gets set for polls tomorrow
The Electoral Commission (EC) says all is set for the election of the regional representatives to the Council of State, which comes off on Thursday, February 16, 2017.
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In all, 113 people have filed for the election, with the youngest aspirant, aged 23, from the Eastern Region; while an 84-year-old contestant from the Western Region is the oldest aspirant.
Out of the total number of contestants, 107 of them are men, while the remaining six are women.
As of last week, the notices of poll were dispatched to the regional capitals to be sent to the various districts while the ballot papers are ready.
The EC officials who will be monitoring the elections in the regions will be heading to their respective regions either today or early tomorrow morning.
Regional breakdown
The Volta Region has the highest number of aspirants of 21, while only five will vie for the slot in the Upper West Region.
In the Ashanti Region, 19 will vie for the enviable post, while 16 will battle it out in the Greater Accra Region.
Eleven contestants will each vie for the slot in the Eastern, Brong Ahafo and Northern regions, while seven will be contesting for the seat to represent the Upper East Region. Six aspirants each will contest in the Western and Central regions.
Electoral College
The Head of Communications of the EC, Mr Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic, explained that the election was slated for February 9, 2017 but had to be postponed because some of the assemblies could not present their members of the Electoral College.
He stated that because of the change of government, the assemblies needed to re-organise themselves since the past government appointees had to give way to the new government appointees; and that was what caused the inability of some of the assemblies to select their two representatives to the electoral college.
Mr Dzakpasu explained that the Electoral College for each region was made up of two representatives from each assembly, explaining that for instance, if a region had 12 district assemblies, its electoral college would be made up of 24 members.
“Now, we are set. All districts, municipals and metropolitan assemblies have presented their two representatives to form the regional electoral colleges,” he explained.
Mr Dzakpasu said with the exception of the Greater Accra Region where the elections would be held at the Ga West Municipal office at Amasaman, all other regional elections would be held at their respective regional coordinating council conference rooms.
Since the numbers of those who formed the electoral colleges were relatively small, “by Thursday in the evening, we expect to have the 10 regional representatives to the Council of State.”