Attempts by the Electoral Commission (EC) to mount platform for aspiring assembly members for Mankessim to present their manifestos failed twice as the electorate failed to attend.
At Twafo-Akyenim Electoral Area on Sunday the platform mounting turned into a brawl as some of the aspiring assembly members and the Unit Committee members thought their Returning Officer, Madam Edith Tawiah, had played a fast one on them by not informing them earlier about the call-off of the exercise.
At Edumadze Electoral Area on Monday the exercise, which was scheduled for 1500 hours, was called off at about 1800 hours after the Returning Officer, Mr Anthony Arthur, the two aspiring assembly members and the five aspiring Unit Committee members waited for about three hours without the electorate coming for the exercise to start.
Mr Alex Kojo Appiah, one of the aspiring assembly members, appealed to chiefs to get deeply involved in the district level elections to ensure that they got quality people to represent them in the assembly.
He said since the district assembly concept was non-partisan, District Chief Executives and party executives could not be involved in its organization.
Mr Appiah said due to the fact that the Electoral Commission was constrained with resources, they needed the support of chiefs at least with publicity on the electoral process through the beating of gong-gong and the use of other means of public address systems.
Mr Appiah, a graduate of the University of Education, Winneba and a teacher at Mankessim Senior High School, told the Ghana News Agency that he would make education and health his priority areas when elected to the assembly.
He said truancy among school children was high on market days at Mankessim and he would liaise with other assembly members, chiefs and Parent-Teacher Associations to conduct regular unannounced checks at the market to check children who should have been at school at the time.
Mr Appiah said he would lobby the assembly to rehabilitate an abandoned classroom at the Edumadze Municipal Assembly Junior High School 'A' for use as computer centre to serve the cluster of schools in the electoral area.
He said as an agent of the National Health Insurance Scheme for the area, he would ensure that people register with the scheme.
Mr Appiah said he had started the campaign and had registered about 150 people for the scheme.
He said he would rekindle the communal spirit of the people which had waned for them to organize exercises to clean their surroundings.