Annual report on the Gold Coast / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1954]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Gold Coast / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/198 page 6
    Officers were senior Government officials, for the most part Govern¬ ment Agents and Assistant Government Agents (some of whom were in charge of more than one electoral district). Assistant Registration Officers were recruited in large numbers from local authorities and schools as well as from the Government Service. There is no doubt that registration, particularly in the Eastern and Western Regions, was hampered by the requirement of payment of rates. In some areas no rate under the Local Government Ordinance had been imposed during the previous year, and collection of the rate had not properly started. In other areas, where Native Authorities had only recently been replaced by Local Authorities under the Local Government Ordinance, it was believed (wrongly) that payment of the previous year’s tax to the old Native Authority was a sufficient qualification for registration. In Accra, and also in one or two small rural areas, no rate had been imposed and electors were allowed to register rate-free: this aroused envy and resentment in rate-paying districts. Another difficulty was that of explaining in simple and non- controversial terms the provision that registration as an Assembly elector was confined to British subjects and British protected persons, with the exception of foreign nationals serving in the armed forces or the Gold Coast Police. The difficulty was increased by the fact that foreign nationals were able to register at the same time and on the same Registers as Local Government electors if they had the requisite qualifications. It is probable that in some areas foreign nationals not eligible to be registered as Assembly electors were in fact registered as such, and that in other areas foreign nationals eligible to be registered as Local Government electors were wrongly omitted from the Registers. On the whole registration proceeded satisfactorily, and certainly without disturbance or major incident. In all, 1,225,603 persons registered. General Election.—The date fixed for the general election was June 15th. This date was determined by political and constitutional considerations, and fell in the middle of the rainy season. The day was, however, fine throughout the country. It was originally intended to hold the general election on one and the same day throughout the Gold Coast. On closer examination of the administrative arrange¬ ments required in the Northern Territories, however, it was decided that there should be two polling days in that Region. This decision was dictated mainly by the fact that it would have been impossible to recruit from within the Northern Territories sufficient staff to man all the polling stations on one day. As in the case of the general registration, the arrangements for the general election were organised on a regional basis. All Returning Officers were senior Government Officials. Assistant Returning Officers, Presiding Officers and Polling Assistants were recruited mainly from local authorities, schools and the Government Service, but large numbers of volunteers from the general public were also accepted.
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