Lower Manya elects assembly members
After eight years of dispute over 11 electoral areas, which stalled district assembly elections, the people of the Lower Manya Krobo District in the Eastern Region yesterday went to the polls to elect their representatives for the assembly and the unit committees.
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More than 68,000 voters were to exercise their franchise, as 110 candidates, including a woman, contested the district assembly election, while 245 others, including 28 women, vied for positions at the Unit Committee level.
District level elections had, for the past eight years, not been held in the area due to a dispute over 11 electoral areas at Akuse between the Lower Manya Krobo District and the adjacent Dangme West District, now known as Shai-Osudoku.
The tango, which started with the defection of some of Akuse assembly members to the then Dangme West District, was, however, settled by a Supreme Court ruling in favour of Lower Manya Krobo about a fortnight ago.
Turn-out was low, with just a few people trickling in at the various polling stations.
For example, at the District Assembly Polling Station at Odumase-Krobo, only 101 out of 793 voters had cast their votes as of 1 p.m.
On the whole, the conduct of the election was orderly, except at the Amedika Polling Station where the verification equipment could not initially function.
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Djan, who happened to be there, ordered the replacement of the machine, which was done at 11 a.m. for voting to begin.
While Dr Afari-Djan toured some of the polling stations, other top officials of the EC directed affairs at other polling stations.
The Deputy Eastern Regional Director of the EC, Mr Eric Mensah-Bonsu, who also led some EC officials to some of the polling stations, expressed satisfaction with the peaceful nature of the event.
He expressed the hope that by the end of the day, the people would have their representatives elected to lead them at the assembly and the unit committee levels.
In separate interviews, some of the residents of the district expressed their joy that the election, which had eluded them for nearly a decade, had now come off.
They commended the Manya Krobo Traditional Council, especially the Konor, Nene Sakite, for taking up the Akuse issue, which led the Supreme Court to eventually rule in favour of Manya Krobo.
“We are grateful to the Konor and all others whose efforts have led to the retention of the Akuse area within the Manya Krobo District and paramountcy,” Nomo Atteh Buawolor, an octogenarian at Odumase-Krobo, said.
He was hopeful that at long last an assembly member would now have to direct the development of his community, instead of assembly officials deciding on the type of social amenities to be provided for them.