The massive campaign from persons of all walks of life including the political divides for the creation of Savannah and North East regions out of the Northern region has yielded positive result.
People from the two proposed regions turned up in their numbers at the various polling stations to vote YES for the referendum held on December 27, 2018 by the Electoral Commission.
Savannah and North East regions are part of the six new regions government is seeking to create that will bring the administrative regions in Ghana to 16. The referendum was also held for the creation of Ahafo, Bono East, Oti, Western North regions respectively.
Read: Western North Region gets ‘independence’ with overwhelming 99.52% YES votes
The proposed Savannah region where former President John Dramani Mahama voted recorded a 99.52% YES vote to endorse the creation of the region.
Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia also voted in the proposed North East that achieved overpowering 99.67% votes for YES, 3news.com’s correspondent Zubaida Ismail reported based on provisional results.
The Savannah region had 207, 343 people voting on Thursday out of 252,902 registered voters to represent 81.98 % more than 50% turnout needed for the referendum to be accepted.
At the end of polls there, those for YES had 206,350 votes with a paltry number of 647 voting NO against the creation of the Savannah region. A percentage of 80 was required for YES to pave way for the creation of the new region but the endorsement crossed the threshold to 99.5211%.
A total of 346 votes were recorded as rejected ballots in all the six districts collated. The districts are: Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, Bole, West Gonja, North Gonja, Central Gonja, and East Gonja [Municipal].
From the North East region comprising East Mamprusi [Municipal] , Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri, West Mamprusi [Municipal], Chereponi, Yunyoo-Nansuan, Mamprugu/Moagduri, the total voter turnout was 81.5%, also way above the 50% needed.
Out of the 205,804 that cast their ballots in the proposed region, 205,121 voted for YES as against 447 for NO votes with 236 votes being recorded as rejected.
The above figures signify a remarkable achievement for persons who have for days leading to the referendum waged a relentless campaign for YES votes.
Read:Savannah region: Overlord of Kpembe traditional area wants 100% YES from Gonjas
The voting was peaceful throughout the two proposed regions.
Having passed this stage for the creation of Savannah and North East regions, it is now incumbent on the president of Ghana as enjoined by Article 5(8) of the 1992 Constitution to issue a CI giving effect or enabling effect to the results of the referendum for the creation of new regions.
Read also: Overwhelming ‘Yes’ vote delivers Ahafo and Bono East regions
By Isaac Essel | 3news.com | Ghana
Follow @IsaacEssel
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