Politics

Political parties involvement in local level elections phenomenal – Akwetey

Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, the Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) has described the upcoming referendum on political parties involvement in local level elections as phenomenal and urged the citizenry to vote ‘yes’ on December 17, 2019.

He noted that a ‘yes’ victory will be the beginning of better engagement in the growth and development at the local level and acknowledged the assistance and support the referendum was receiving, especially from past presidents and past government appointees.

 “The Presidents’ decision, the support and assistance he’s gotten from the former presidents, the fact that the two major political parties in parliament and all the other minority parties are supporting the exercises, the support is growing and it takes that space for conversation for us to know that we are not electing Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) by article  55(3) actually deals with assemblies, it is 24(3) that deals with MMDCEs.

“But once you do the two, parties will get involved because MMDCEs to be elected is part of local government, this is phenomenal, a new change because we’ve not been electing our MMDCEs in our history. Local government is where the public interest comes into communities, where tax payer’s monies are spent, it’s not a profit making zone generally but it is also important to grow and develop the local economies.

 “When you keep parties out of this arena for as long as 60 years, you have deprived them of the very important environment within which they will learn how to govern and how to interact with us and solve the problems and challenges,” Dr Akwetey underscored.

However, Samson Lardi Anyenini, a legal practitioner is canvassing against a ‘yes’ vote in the December 17 referendum which seeks to allow political party participation in local elections, according to him, allowing political parties in local elections will further compromise and deepen the political divisiveness in the country. -starrfmonline.com

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