By Yussif Ibrahim
Kumasi, Nov. 19, GNA – The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly Local Accountability Network (KMA LANet) has taken first-time voter education campaign to nine educational and religious institutions in the Ashanti Region.
A total of 20,997 people were educated on the processes involved in casting a ballot as part of efforts to reduce the number of spoilt and rejected ballots in this year’s election.
The campaign, which is being implemented by the Ghana Anti- Corruption Coalition (GACC) through the KMA LANet, which is its local partners, seeks to empower first-time voters with the requisite knowledge and tools to participate meaningfully and make informed decision during Ghana’s 2024 election.
The initiative dubbed, “The Youth Voice: Activating First-Time Voters for Ghana’s General Elections 2024”, is being funded by the U.S Embassy and the Hewlett Foundation.
Institutions visited as part of the campaign included seven in the education sector and two churches in the Kumasi Metropolis, Bekwai Municipality, and the Bosomtwe District.
They were the Islamic Senior High School, Kumasi Technical Institute, Serwaah Nyarko Girls Senior High School, Kumasi Girls Senior High School, and Kumasi Senior High Technical School.
The rest were Kokofu Nursing and Midwifery Training College, St Michael Nursing and Midwifery Training College, St. Peters Basilica Youth Church, and the Feyiase Church of Pentecost.
Young people in these institutions were educated on the need to avoid electoral fraud such as vote buying, vote tampering, bribery, underage voting and violence.
Resource persons who facilitated the exercise were drawn from the institutions visited, National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Electoral Commission (EC), Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and the KMA LANet.
Madam Aba Oppong, Executive Director of Rights and Responsibilities Initiative Ghana and Chair of KMA LANet, said as first-time voters they needed to uphold peaceful election principles and avoid electoral fraud.
She took them through the rights and responsibilities of first-time voters as well as what they needed to do on the Election Day.
First-time voters, she noted, must participate in the process to elect leaders with integrity to strengthen Ghana’s democracy.
They must not serve as instruments to perpetrate violence by any politician because they had their future ahead of them, she advised.
GNA