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The Savannah Women Empowerment Group Ghana (SWEGG), has urged the Electoral Commission and Parliament, to work quickly to finalize processes leading to the filing of nominations, and the holding of the District Assembly Elections.

Hajia Zaratu Abdul-Rahman, Chairperson of SWEGG, who made the call at a press conference organized by SWEGG in Tamale on Thursday, said the indefinite postponement of the District Assembly Elections as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling would have serious consequences on the fortunes of women candidates at the polls.

Hajia Abdul-Rahman said women candidates had already expended a lot of resources in prosecuting their campaigns for the elections initially set for March 3, and might not be able to raise additional resources to support their campaigns for the extended period.

The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision last week, directed the Electoral Commission to re-start the processes towards the conduct of the District Assembly Elections, because the Constitutional Instrument governing the conduct of the elections did not mature in Parliament, as required before the Electoral Commission started the processes to conduct the elections.

This led to the indefinite postponement of the District Assembly Elections initially slated for March 3.

Hajia Abdul-Rahman said women’s representation at the District Assembly level across the country was low mainly because of lack of resources to prosecute their campaigns,  coupled with some cultural and traditional issues, a situation which did not augur well for the development of the country, “considering the bread and butter issues discussed at the district level which lie in the domain of women’s roles.”

She said “The postponement will cause a great loss to the various stakeholders and organizations that believed strongly in these women and helped them in all aspects of their campaigning from filing, training to build their capacity, printing of posters, and banners.”

Hajia Abdul-Rahman said a quick resolution of the challenges and early elections would help mitigate the threats to increased women representation at the District Assemblies, and urged the government to release the needed funds, and support the processes for the quick resolution of the challenge.

She also appealed to the government to ensure that 50 per cent of the 30 per cent government appointees to the District Assemblies were women in accordance with the numerous policies on gender equality that the country had adopted.

Madam Saaka Zainab, Assembly Member contestant for the  Bole Korupe Electoral Area,  said the sudden postponement of the District Assembly Elections came at a great cost to her, as she had already expended her meagre resources on the campaign.

SWEGG is a network of women working to ensure that women of the north are empowered socially, economically, and politically, to participate in decision-making processes at all levels of development.