Ayawaso East By-Election: Young people often decide not to vote in by-elections

The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has revealed that Ghanaian youth usually choose not to participate in by-elections in the country simply because these elections are not national contests.

Reacting to the low voter turnout at during the Ayawaso East by-election on Tuesday, CDD-Ghana noted that lower participation in by-elections has often been driven by the perception that “there is no high stake” as they are often restricted to a particular constituency.

Speaking on Joy News’ OM Express on Tuesday, the Programmes Officer at CDD-Ghana, Vera Abena Addo, dismissed assertions that heightened security could have accounted for the low turnout levels, noting that situation may require a “special research to explain demographic gaps.”

“I am not able to attribute the low turnout to the heavy security. I’m not sure. Well, like I said, our by-elections generally have tended to have low turnout. So, we may have to have some further quick survey or research to find out why the women or some or mostly the youth did not come out,” she said.

She warned that simply pointing to perceived causes of the lack of participation from the youth is dangerous and “not normal,” adding that if the root cases are not identified, future by-elections may record low levels of participation never seen before.

“For the youth as well… when most of them mobilize themselves they are able to come out in their numbers we’ve also seen that most of the time young people tend not to really participate in the by-elections because they think that there’s no high stake to it and it’s not a national,” she added.

Vera Addo however explained that the pattern is not unique to Ghana, adding that there is an “international tendency” towards low by-election participation which is sometimes worsened by what she described as “post-election fatigue” after a national election.

Her comments come as the Electoral Commission (EC) declared the NDC’s Baba Jamal winner of the Ayawaso East by-election on Tuesday, March 3, after securing 10,884 votes, ahead of the NPP’s Baba Ali Yussif, who polled 4,009.

Independent candidate Mohammed Umar Sanda came in third with 1,885, David Kanor with 104, while Ibrahim Iddrisu came in fifth with 43 votes.