The Electoral Commission (EC) will commence stakeholder engagements at the national, regional, and district levels for women, civil society organizations (CSOs), and people with disabilities (PWDs) from November 4 to 8, 2023.

The move is to educate and whip up the interest of all stakeholders in the electoral process ahead of the December 19 District Level Elections (DLEs) to elect assembly and Unit Committee members for the various Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies across the country.

The election will take place in 6,272 electoral areas and 38,622 polling stations nationwide in 259 districts out of a total of 261.

There would be no elections in Nkoranza North and South in the Bono East regions because the polls were held in the two districts in April 2020 and the next one would be conducted for both districts in 2025.

Activities

Per the programme of activities released by the EC for the 2023 DLEs, the commission would receive nominations from aspirants from November 16 to 17 while the notice of poll for the elections would be posted from November 29 to December 4, 2023.

A platform for the aspirants in the elections would be mounted from December 1 to 14, 2023, to sell their messages to the electorate, with the election taking place on Tuesday, December 19, 2023.

A key activity expected to take place ahead of the DLEs is the nationwide voter exhibition exercise that would take place on November 3 to 9, 2023, across the 38,622 polling stations for electorates to cross-check their names in the voter register while authentication of the register will come off from November 24 to 28, 2023.

Other activities that had already taken place per the calendar issued by the EC for the DLEs are the voter registration exercise (September 2 to October 2, 2023); transfer of votes (October 3 to 9, 2023), and replacement of lost voters’ ID Cards. 

Background

The DLEs are held every four years and take place a year before the Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Since 1988, Ghana has had eight successive local-level elections to engender greater citizen participation in the process.

Section six of the Local Governance Act 2016 (Act 936), as amended by Act 940, provided that DLEs should be held every four years, with an interval between the DLEs and the Presidential and Parliamentary elections being at least six months apart.