The Institute for Democratic Governance, IDEG, is saying the only way to hold the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, MMDCEs accountable to the developmental needs of the people is to elect them.
According to Seth Abloso, a member of the steering committee of the Civic Forum Initiative, CFI, when MMDCEs are elected by their own people, they are answerable to the people and will work hard to map out strategies to bring even development to their areas to enhance the appalling living conditions of the people.
He has, however, challenged all presidential aspirants, who are seeking the mandate of the electorate in the December 2016 polls to ensure they stick to their steadfast of amending the constitution to allow MMDCEs to be elected by the people if voted into office of the presidency.
Mr. Abloso was addressing a mammoth gathering which brought together some revered stakeholders to brainstorm on the need for the election of the MMDCEs at a Regional Dialogue on Democratic Devolution in Bolgatanga of the Upper East Region.
Speaking on the theme: "Strengthening Democratic Development through Multi-party Based Local Government", Mr. Abloso, said if the position of the DCE was open to all members of the political divide to contest, it would ease the partisan rancour and political acrimony, and that the DCEs would be resolved to explore to increase revenue mobilisation for the development of their districts.
" When DCEs are elected by the people whom they serve, they they will be committed to working hard for the development of their respective districts for the fear they will lose re-election if they underperform. All these issues about insults, name callings, violence will stop because they know when their party loses elections, it has a chance of being represented in the District Assembly", he explained.
IDEG proposed the District Assembly Common Fund should be increased from seven percent to 15 percent in order to enable the various districts attain the desired progress and that, proportional representation should be introduced to enhance women's participation in national and local level elections.
A senior lecturer, School of Law, University of Ghana, Dr. Peter Atupare, who delivered his keynote address on the roadmap to the constitutional amendment process, emphasised he was optimistic the election of MMDCEs would reduce tensions and violence during electioneering since there would be power sharing in Local Government.
He also called on government to consider reviewing upwards the allowances being paid to chiefs and traditional leaders, saying the allowances paid to chiefs were very low and pathetic, hence the need for government to empower them economically since they played a crucial role in the development of the country and protecting the cultural sanctity of the people under their jurisdictions.
Source: Francis Dabre Dabang/ email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
Every action or decision in life has its positive and negative consequence. One, therefore, must weigh the effects of the two for a right choice. Yes, it is true that electing the MDCEs would have its own challenges especially if the national government would have to appoint some people to the assemblies. On the other hand, the success to elect MDCEs and all the assembly members would become the greatest fortune any political party could bequeath to our nation. It will make the local communities the pivot of our political organization for nationwide growth and development. Local Assemblies would have the liberty to develop the best strategy to build their districts according to the needs and the resources of their communities. It would create vibrant competition among the various assemblies to make project and development of the people in their communities their primary focus. Elections to the assemblies would be taken seriously and not a waste of resources as we all witness in the local assemblies elections. In fact many devoted Ghanaians would be committed to work for the local assemblies and build their communities to a very high standards. Besides, services to local assemblies will become a springboard to identify and prepare competent citizens for national offices. The achievements of individuals in the local assemblies would get them the admiration of the people across the districts and regions to be elected for national offices. It would grant meaningful experience to our politicians and realistic background check to the electorates for a significant national elections. Elections in Ghana would no longer become an issue of winner-takes all and the system would drastically reduce the tension which we experience in every national elections. It will eliminate or reduce the envy between MPs and MDCEs as no MDCE, except for sheer service to the nation, would bother to seek an MP's seat. The position of MDCEs would become secured and would depend on their competence and not the mere wishes of some pockets veranda boys. MPs could concentrate on their work as law makers and would no longer become project contractors. The presidency would become more focus on national issues than to be drawn into every village local politics. It will reduce the manipulation of traditional leaders by the national government or vice versa. The benefits of the elections of the MDCEs would far outweigh any challenge that we may initially encounter. Patrick Osei-Poku
I am not convinced that electing DCEs will change much of the troubles besseting our local governance system. In fact doing that at this time will confound it because the problems we have go beyond election of DCEs. If governments should practice what the 1992 Constitution requires for the management of this country we might not even be discussing this issues at this time. Who says there is no accountability provision in the current local government system? There is a lot of it. My worry is that many of these people who talk about local governance issues have not even taken course to know what it entails including the confluence and interaction between political, fiscal and administrative decentralization so they say anything because it seems good to them. IDEG, IEA, etc send your staff on local government training.
It is believed by many people in Ghana across different parties that election of MDCE is the best approach to develop the nation, yet our politicians fail to implement the policy when they come to power. This attitude support the view that many of our politicians think more of holding on to power than developing the nation. I wish that any of our two main political parties would make the election of MDCE as their major and consistent campaign policy to explain to the people of Ghana the benefits of electing the MDCE. The idea is casually mentioned at campaigns by some parties without educating the people about the benefits of the policy. Such education will enable the people in the districts and the constituencies to support the parliamentarians candidates who are likely to support the view in parliament. It will also enable the people to demand for the implementation of the policy if such a party succeed to come to power. The people of Ghana are itching for such an opportunity, that is why we get many problems in the districts over the appointment of MDCEs. IEA, IDEG and almost all meaningful policy think-tanks support the view. Please, politicians in Ghana wake up.
The prez appoints far too many people. That's how come there's boot-licking all over the place. The prez must shed some responsibility by allowing us to vote for our DCEs