2,658 candidates to contest Assembly elections in Upper East

Two thousand, six hundred and fifty eight candidates are to contest the forthcoming District Assembly and Unit Committee elections in the Upper East Region.

Two thousand, seven hundred and sixty-four are contesting at the unit committee level while 894 are vying for seats at the Assembly level.

At the District Assembly level, only 70 women have filed to contest against 824 men.

Builsa District has the highest number of female candidates while Bawku Municipality has the least number of two female contestants.

The Upper East Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr. Bruce Eyisi disclosed this to the GNA in an interview in Bolgatanga on Thursday.

He indicated that the number of women candidates for the forthcoming election was higher than the previous elections because the number of electoral areas has increased following re-demarcation exercise conducted by the EC.

He was hopeful that the re-demarcation would improve upon the representation of people in the various communities because more electoral areas created meant more assembly members.

Mr. Eyisi said the number of electoral areas in the region had increased from 270 electoral areas to 354 electoral areas.

He indicated that Builsa district had its electoral areas increased from 42 to 51, Kassena-Nankana East, 22 to 35, Kassena-Nankana West, 32 to 46, Bolgatanga Municipality, 28 to 37, Bongo, 36 to 38, Bawku Municipality, 30 to 34, Bawku West, 32 to 47, Garu-Tempane, 22 to 30, and Talensi-Nabdam, 26 to 36.

He said problems associated with the re-demarcation exercise in some communities were being addressed.

The elections are slated for December 28, 2010. Candidates in the Upper East Region are intensifying their campaigns to woo more voters.

Source: GNA