After years of legal battle, threats of “self-government” and several assurances from the government and the Electoral Commission (EC), the people of Lower Manya Krobo will, on December 3, 2013, have the opportunity to elect their district assembly and unit committee members.

The EC yesterday fulfilled promises it had made that it would organise the elections immediately resources were made available to it by the government treasury.

According to a letter signed by a Deputy Chairman of the EC, Mr Amadu Sulley, a copy of which was made available to the Daily Graphic, nominations for the district assembly elections would take place at the electoral area centres on Wednesday, October 30, 2013.

It said nominations for the unit committee elections would take place on Thursday, October 31, 2013 at the same venues where nominations for the assembly elections would take place.

The letter urged candidates to attach three recent photographs (bust), preferably with a red background, to the completed nomination forms.

Qualified individuals interested in contesting the said elections may obtain nomination forms from the deputy returning officers (special duties) at the electoral area centres or from the District Office of the EC at Odumase Krobo.

In 2010, a Parliamentary Sub-Legislation Committee, acting on the Local Government Instrument 2010, LI 1983 (Creation of New District Electoral Areas and Designation of Units), aligned seven electoral areas at Akuse, originally part of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region, to the Dangme West District (now Shai-Osudoku District) in the Greater Accra Region.

The areas were Zongo New Town, Akutue, Osukutu, Bungalow, Amedeka, Salon and Natriku.

That alignment sparked off a boundary dispute that led to the suspension of the assembly elections in the entire municipality.

Following from that, moves by the EC in 2010 to hold district level elections were scuttled by the people, a development that led to the closure of the EC’s office in the Manya Krobo District.

The elections, however, took place at Natriku but not at the other six communities.

After one-and-a-half years (December 2010 to June 2012), the Supreme Court declared the said LI 1983 unconstitutional and retained the electoral areas in Lower Manya in the Eastern Region.

Early this month, the Manya Krobo Traditional Council issued a seven-day ultimatum to the EC to announce a date for the assembly elections, otherwise it would declare “self-government” in the area.

But the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, asked the chiefs and people to exercise restraint and allow due process and state institutions to address their concerns.

According to him, the government had notified the EC to organise district level elections to elect assembly members for the area.