We Might As Well Toss A Coin To Elect Prez If�. � Kobby Acheampong

A Deputy Minister for the Interior has strongly disagreed with calls for the positions of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCs) to be contested on party political platforms. According to Kobby Acheampong, the hostile nature of partisan politics in Ghana is the biggest discouragement for academicians and intellectuals getting involved in politics. However, he believes by appointing MMDCEs, some of these people are brought on board. �If you look at the configuration of our districts, you would realize that there are some people who have a lot of acumen, skill but would never under normal circumstances take part in any politicking. It is only when they are appointed that they feel compelled to contribute their quota. �Whiles there are others who would always want to be part of the elections, stand, win and be in the Assembly so we are mixing people, who under the normal circumstances not willing to do anything and people who are willing to do something,� he argued. He further explained on Metro TV�s �Good Morning Ghana� that the essence of competitive politics is about one winning and the other losing, �other than that, why do we vote, why do we go on political platforms preaching to people about our messages and then at the end of the day we don�t vote? �Then we should simply toss a coin to determine the President so that we do not spend all that money preparing for elections and holding an election. Look at the amount of money that we spend on all these things every four years, plus the amount of money we spend on local elections,� the deputy Interior Minister maintained. Kobby Acheampong�s submission comes on the back of a suggestion by a Deputy Communications Director, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah that one of the reasons the country is bedeviled with accountability problems is because MMDCEs are not voted for by the general public. In his view, Ghana is running an asymmetric system of governance which allows competition in a partisan manner on one level whiles �we pretend to compete in a non partisan manner� on another. However, Kobby Acheampong maintains that the current system which gives the President the liberty to invite non politicians to help in governance is the best.