Police on 'high alert' as assembly elections begin today

With just minutes to the District Assembly and Unit Committee polls, police say they are on high alert to forestall any trouble.

Director of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police service, Cephas Arthur, says although the elections do not command the same level of seriousness as the presidential and parliamentary elections, they are poised to deal with any security breach.

“What is important is safe guarding the integrity of the process and everything that we need to put in place to safe guard it, we are doing it”, he said.

Joy News Francis Abban reported Tuesday that over 700 security personnel are being deployed across polling stations at Odorkor, a suburb of Accra.

Originally scheduled for March 3, the District Assembly and Unit Committee elections were postponed after the Supreme Court annulled the process.

A disgruntled assemblyman aspirant, Benjamin Eyi Mensah, brought a suit against the EC for closing nominations before the maturation of the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 85. The Supreme Court ruled that the EC was yet to lay before Parliament a new legislation which would mature after 21 days to pave way for the opening of nominations across the country.

Meanwhile, the EC says all is set for the elections.

According to the EC election materials have been transported to the various district assemblies for the polls.

A total of 18,938 candidates are contesting for the District Assembly, 17,785 are male and 1,102 female.

Also 43,584 candidates will be contesting for the Unit Committee Elections. Only one third of these candidates are female.