Ninety-one women in the Northern Region have declared their intentions to contest the 2014 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assembly elections. The aspiring assembly women who are professionals in various fields will face their male counterparts in the region.
Among the 91 women are two persons living with disability. West Mamprusi and Nanumba north recorded the highest number of women contesting.
West Mamprusi has sixteen and seven in Nanumba North district. Some of the women aspirants with masters and first degrees are mainly teachers, typists, civil servants and development workers.
The election which was supposed to be held in October, 2014 was postponed by the electoral commission for about two times in spite of pressure from civil society organizations.
The major challenges facing women in elections in the Northern region are cultural beliefs of the communities and sometimes their marital status are brought to bear.
In the heat of the campaign in 2010, some women aspirants’ personalities were attacked by their male counterparts.
While some were asking their marital status others were asking the female aspirants’ husbands to caution their wives to step down. Meanwhile, over three hundred aspirants have filed their nominations with electoral commission in the Northern region.
The 2014 assembly election promises to be the most interesting one because the number of youths contesting the election has tremendously increased with some aspirants bent on unseating most of the incumbent assembly members.
Civil Society Platform on good governance describes this development as positive and hopes that more women will be elected into the various assemblies this year.
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