117 New Electoral Areas to be Created in Upper West – EC

The Upper West Regional Office of the Electoral Commission, EC is in the process to create 117 new electoral areas in the region.

According to the EC, the figure will increase the number of electoral areas from the current 293 to 410.
Azu Bosco, Upper West Regional Director of the EC, announced this at a stakeholders meeting organized by the commission in Wa.

He said, “the move is to bring democracy to the doorsteps of the ordinary citizens to help them contribute significantly in the decision-making process.”

The director, however, explained that the new electoral areas could increase or decrease depending on the outcome of an ongoing consultative process across the 11 districts of the Upper West Region.

The Wa East and the Daffiama-Busie-Issah districts which had 25 and 15 electoral areas respectively, will each get 15 additional ones while the Sissala East and West districts will each get 11 new electoral areas added to existing 21 areas.

The Jirapa municipality, which currently has the highest number of 37 electoral areas, will get an additional 14 whereas the Wa municipality will increase from 31 to 41.

The Wa West district will move from its current 28 electoral areas to 39, and the Nandom district will be adding 9 to their existing 25 electoral areas.

The Lawra municipality will get ten added to their 29 while the Lambusie district will get six added to their 25 old electoral areas.

The Nadowli-Kaleo district has the least proposed new electoral areas with five added to its existing 36.

Mr Azu Bosco admonished the various stakeholders to educate the populace, saying “it’s only when we have an educated population that we can have an improvement in our electoral process.”