The Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) has advocated the overhauling of the Constitutional Instrument (CI) used in setting up the local government system.
It explained that even though certain ideals went into the creation of the system years back, it could not work currently because they had been tested and proven “flawed”.
“If any government wants to open up the system it has to first overhaul Constitution Instruments that were used in setting up the local government system because it has been tested and proven to be flawed,” the Institute contended.
Resurrecting the debate on the election of Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, the Executive Director of IDEG, maintained that ideas that went into the system of setting up the local government system some years back could not work now as the system had been tested and had proven flawed.
The election of MMDCEs was a campaign promise by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to the citizenry however, during his recent public engagement, he indicated that there was continuing work for an extensive, national consensus to be reached on ramifications of Article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution.
This is because Article 55(3) of the Constitution bars political parties from involvement in Metropolitan, Municipal and District assembly (MMDAs)elections and local government.
Dr Akwetey suggested that there was need to reform the system to enable it to play effective and efficient roles in transforming the system to ensure the election of MMDCEswere credible saying “because the system is not working, we think that is where we come in to complement other stakeholders in the conversation on the way forward.
“We need institutional reforms, the existing local government system was not designed for elected MMDCEs nor was it designed for political parties, 30 years on the system has failed to deliver, everybody seems to be putting all our hope in elections but within existing system are going to be extremely difficult and for any move on their elections to work out there should be reforms since number of moves to improve the system has not worked out.
“We said parties should not get involved in the elections of local assemblies and financing but we could not, it was expensive to contribute towards mounting platforms when stakeholders were approached.
