MMDCEs referendum: IDEG pushes for more ‘yes’ votes on December 17
The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) has called on Ghanaians to vote massively for the amendment of Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution to allow political parties to participate in district level elections, ABC News can report.
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The Electoral Commission has set December 17, 2019, for the referendum which will pave way for changes to be made in the law which currently bars political parties from participating in elections at the district level.
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According to the Executive Director of IDEG, Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, there is an urgent need to reform Ghana’s local governance structure to reflect current trends.
Describing the current system as old, he argued that the existing practice was introduced before the 1992 Constitution at a time when the country was not practicing multi-party democracy.
In his view, the he local government structure and the multi-party democracy as practiced today have inherent contradictions, hence the essence of the amendment to suit international best practices.
To him, it is time for this disconnect between the national-level politics and the local level politics to be resolved as Ghana makes strides in its democratic values. He noted that it is quite surprising for the law to prohibit political parties from involving themselves in local level elections but the same law requires the parties to set up offices across all the districts.
Moreover, he indicated that aside the prohibition, it is an “open secret” that political parties get involved in the local level elections.
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The Executive Director contends that in the 27 years of Ghana’s practice of multi-party democracy, there is enough basis to amend the Article 55 Clause 3 to allow political parties to participate in the local and district level elections, hence disagreeing with the opponents of the proposed amendments.
He again described the proposal to amend the local government structure by the President as “historic” because “it is rare to have all former presidents, traditional leaders, parliamentarians and various people in the society to come together to push a common cause as it has been seen in this.”
He was however, quick to add that for the proposal to be possible, there was the need for a ‘Yes’ vote of not less than 75 per cent to be attained at the referendum, stressing that “it is important that a Yes vote is attained in that referendum since it will redefine local governance in our country.”
Governance expert, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, who was also on the programme, noted that the amendment will help re-orient political parties to focus on developing the various districts.
Article 55 (3) which is an entrenched position states that: “…Subject to the provisions of this Article, a political party is free to participate in shaping the political will of the people, to disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programmes of a national character, and sponsor candidates for elections to any public office other than to District Assemblies or lower local government units”.
The provision can only be amended through a referendum which per Article 290(4) of the 1992 constitution, can be approved when at least 40% of persons entitled to vote, vote at the referendum and at least 75% of the persons who vote cast their votes in favour of passing the bill.
If carried, the proposed amendment will introduce multi-party participation in the local government system in Ghana.
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