Hilltop School elects new prefects
Fourteen-year-old Master Kwame Badu Dei Asampong has been elected the Senior Prefect of the Hilltop School in Kumasi for the 2017/2018 academic year.
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Out of the 435 total votes cast, Master Asampong polled 261 to win the position which was contested by three other candidates. The other contestants were Masters Kwadwo Obour Berchie, Frank Kwaku Boateng and Nicol Kofi Brogya.
After the keenly contested election, only six votes were rejected, an indication that the children were well educated about the voting process and were, therefore, conversant with what was expected of them.
Pupils and students waiting anxiously for the declaration of the election results
The Girls Prefect position was won by Miss Elizabeth Hussein Limathar after she polled 156 votes to beat three other contestants, namely Akosua Fosua Brenya, Afia Asantewaa Kufuor and Michelle Obeng.
The well organised election had most of the pupils casting their votes with excitement.
Children who were eligible to vote according to the school system were those in Primary Four up to JHS Two, since it was believed that pupils in those classes understood the voting process.
Students at the junior high school (JHS) level were the first to cast their votes, followed by those in the primary section.
Some pupils and students in a queue to cast their ballots
The election process was orderly as all the necessary electoral materials were available, making voting smooth after officials of the Electoral Commission had educated the pupils and students.
Other positions contested for were sports, entertainment, health, compound and library prefects which had all the contestants campaigning for two weeks by presenting their manifestos to the student population.
The Headmistress of the school, Mrs Cecilia Oteng-Amoako, told the Junior Graphic that what motivated the school to embark on such an important exercise was mainly to educate the children at the basic level on electoral processes.
She noted that during the 2008 general elections, a lot of rejected ballots were recorded because people did not do the right thing and, therefore, “as an educational institution, we decided to start the process at the basic level so that the children will learn and be conversant with the process.”
Mrs Oteng-Amoako said the election of the school prefects started about six years ago in consultation with the Ashanti Regional Electoral Commission office.
She said the regional office provided the school with all the materials such as indelible ink, ballot boxes, as well as the ink pads for thumb printing.
Since then, the school had successfully organised five elections with low numbers of rejected ballot papers.
Mrs Oteng-Amoako disclosed that the school was preparing to celebrate its 20th anniversary and a number of activities had been lined up.
The newly elected Boys Prefect expressed excitement that he had been given the opportunity to serve the school and thanked the students for the confidence reposed in him.
He promised to live up to expectation and further encouraged the other contestants who lost to support the newly elected leaders to perform well for the good of the school.