The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) on Wednesday launched an advocacy document geared towards amending article 55 clause 3 of the 1992 constituency of Ghana to pave way for political parties’ inclusion in the local level elections.
This article, if amended, will ensure the participation of political parties in decentralized governance. This will lead to the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives and assembly members on party lines.
At a colorful ceremony to launch the advocacy document at the forecourt of IDEG office in Accra, its Executive Director, Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, expressed optimism that the country’s democratic credentials will deepen once political parties partake in local governance elections.
“There was a constitutional amendment process from 2010 and when we discussed our programme with the board, they felt that the changes that are needed to tackle some of these problems should go to the constitutional amendment commission. So, we went there and told them that we thought because of the violence, we ought to re-examine the whole question of why local government is important to democratic stability and our development. And we felt it was time to look at political parties”
Dr. Akwetey added that “Ghanaians actually like parties because in the last 26 years, the average turn-out in presidential and parliamentary elections is about 75 percent. When you take local government, it is about, sometimes less than 30 [percent]. The highest we had in 2015 was about 41 point something percent. So put together, we felt that it was time to reason with the public, to put information out, that will enable people to understand why if parties were allowed in local government, it is going to be the most strategic and transformational reform we had.”
Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, O.B Amoah, said the Akufo-Addo government is committed to ensuring that the amendment of the constituency for the election of MMDCEs is achieved before the next local level elections.
“We started it with the NPP manifesto but we thought it wasn’t enough and so, the president in his message to the nation made it very clear that his government is very committed to this whole exercise of granting multiparty democracy at the local governance level. And went ahead to assure the whole nation that he has set in motion a very strong system to ensure that we get to this destination”
According to the deputy minister, the bill has been submitted to the Speaker of Parliament for referral to the Council of State. Mr. Amoah expressed confidence that the Attorney General will soon publish the gazette bill for 6 months towards the amendments of multiparty system at the grassroots level.
IDEG has since 2014 advocated for multiparty decentralized local governance reforms in the country. This has sustained for democratic revolution in public discourse and contributed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s directive for the amendment of article 55 clause 3 of the 1992 constitution.
The launch of the advocacy document dubbed “The case for multiparty local governance in Ghana” was part of IDEG’s awareness programmes to secure a YES vote in the 2019 Referendum on amending article 55 clause 3 of the country’s constitution.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah
