Dr Serebour Quaicoe, the Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC) has charged the youth to take active part in the impending district level elections and referendum seeking to amend Article 53 (3) to pave way for political parties to sponsor candidates in the elections.
He explained that the youth as key stakeholders in electoral processes had critical role to play for peaceful and successful exercise, the youth had the potential to make or unmake any election, making them critical segment of the populace that needed to be targeted in ensuring a peaceful and successful elections.
Dr Quaicoe was speaking at a youth dialogue organised by the Commission to discuss pertinent issues on the district level elections and referendum in Kumasi which formed part of series of education, sensitisation and awareness programmes to engage various identifiable groups in the Ashanti Region by the Commission ahead of the December 17, 2019, elections.
“It is imperative for the EC to regularly engage the
youth on electoral matters to
equip them with adequate information as means of curbing electoral violence,
which are often perpetrated by the youth, we attach importance to the role of the
youth in elections and will continue to build their capacities with hope they
will serve as peer
educators in various communities,” Dr Quaicoe assured.
Throwing more light on the referendum, he stressed that “the amendment of Article 53(3) of the 1992 Constitution, which the referendum sought to achieve is not to pave way for the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives but to allow multi-party participation in the district level elections.
“Article 53(3) is an entrenched provision which
requires a referendum to amend
it but Article 243, which mandates the president to nominate metropolitan, municipal
and district chief executives can be amended by parliament, the legislative
body has already commenced the processes to amend the provision,” Dr
Quaicoe indicated.
Benjamin Bano-Bio,
the Regional Director of EC, who took the participants through
electoral offences, entreated them to observe rules and regulations governing
elections to avoid being penalised, play the watchdog role as future leaders
and guard against manipulations by selfish individuals or groups whose agenda
would not inure to the benefit of the nation. -gna.org
