The citizenry have been urged to be more open-minded to the idea of partisan elections of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).
An open-minded idea is one of the benefits of partisanship at the local level in training better leaders and an avenue for nurturing politicians who rise through metropolitan municipal and district levels to the Presidency
Frederic Agyarko Oduro, a governance analyst, insisted that the party system would be better avenue for nurturing politicians who rise through the local levels to even the Presidency after the controversy in the Juaben municipality, where its Municipal Chief Executive nominee, Alex Sarfo Kantanka, was arrested for bribing assembly members.
According to him, “such incidents should be treated in isolation because it is a classic case of bribery which is criminal, and I am very happy that for the first time we found the police arresting somebody with some level of political clout.
Mr Oduro, who is the Dean of the Institute of Local Government Studies, noted that he found it strange when citizens spoke about partisanship at the local level, made it look like a monster and wondered what was really wrong with that when it could be used to develop ideas.
“I find it strange that even when you talk about partisanship at the local level, we make it look like a monster but then, what is really wrong with partisanship? I believe partisanship, as it pertains, is a system that can help us develop ideas.
“Like in Turkey, we have Erdoğan, in the UK, we have Johnson, they were mayors in their cities, they have risen to the highest office of their respective countries and currently, the President nominates all MMDCEs for confirmation by their assemblies however, in September 2019, the President commenced processes to amend Article 243[1] of the 1992 Constitution, which gives him the power to appoint all MMDCEs.
“A referendum was also lined up to seek the support of Ghanaians to amend Article 55[3] of the Constitution, which bans political parties from participating in local level elections and makes such elections partisan but in December 2019, the referendum was suspended due to a perceived lack of a national consensus and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice then withdrew the Constitution Amendment Bills 2018 to amend Articles 55[3] and 243[1] from Parliament,” Mr Oduro lamented. –citinewsroom.com
