A youth activist and Chief Executive of KAVREALITY GH. Limited, Mr. Villey Acheampong, has joined the growing number of individuals and institutions, across the country, backing a ‘YES vote’ in the impending December 17, 2019 Referendum, to strengthen local development.
Mr. Acheampong said allowing people to elect Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), on party lines, will further deepen democracy at the grass-root levels.
He observed that regardless of whichever political party the office of the MMDCEs may be coming from, development will be a priority since the power to ‘appoint or disappoint’ now will now reside with the people, unlike the current practice.
This, he noted, will empower in demanding for their fair share of development since nonperforming office holders could easily be voted out as compared to what pertains now.
He advised that good leadership skills, individual contribution to the development of the people or in other words the overall competence of the candidate should be a determining factor at such elections.
He, therefore, urged those who oppose the idea fearing that people will just vote on party lines to rather be advocates of empowering the people to live above politics.
Mr. Acheampong, who is a constituent of Subin, in the Ashanti Region, made these remarks in an interview in efforts to further create public awareness of the scheduled nationwide exercise.
The referendum slated to come off in the third week of December 2019 and will give the public the opportunity to decide whether Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which prohibits the involvement of political parties in local elections should be amended to include political parties in local government elections.
While the exercise is ongoing, it is understood that Parliament will also be concurrently addressing the issue of the amendment of Article 243 to allow for the election of MMDCEs.
Source: Ghanaweb
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IT IS INTERESTING TO LISTEN TO COMMUNICATORS OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES ON THE REFERENDUM. MANY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE REALITY AND THE SIGNIFICANCE FOR YES AND NO VOTES. SOME AS THEY ADVOCATE FOR YES VOTE ARGUE TO DEFEND NO VOTES AND VICE VERSA. MANY MAY JUST DECIDE OT ALIGN WITH YES OR NO BECAUSE IT HAS NOW BECOME NDC AND NPP POLITICAL MATTER. IT WILL BE DISINGENUOUS OF EC AND NPP GOVERNMENT TO CONTINUE WITH THE REFERENDUM. THE INCONSISTENCY OF NDC AND THE SHIFT OF THE DECISION OFFER THE EC AND NPP THE OPTION TO STOP THE REFERENDUM. THE DECISION TO STOP THE REFERENDUM CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE BETRAYAL OF NDC. WE CAN THEN CONCENTRATE ON WHAT WE ALL AGREE TO PROCEED TO APPROVE THE MOTION TO ELECT THE MMDCES AT THIS STAGE. ONE STEP AT A TIME. ONCE GHANAIANS GET OVER THE ELECTION OF MMDCES WE CAN LATER CONSIDER THE PARTISAN ELECTION OF THE ENTIRE DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES IF IN THE FUTURE WE FIND IT NECESSARY. AS AT NOW MANY GHANAIANS ARE NOT ENTHUSED WITH THE IDEA, SINCE THE POLITICAL PARTIES SECRETLY SUPPORT SOME CANDIDATES TO PURSUE THEIR PARTISAN AGENDA. BESIDES, THE CONFUSION BY THE PARTIES TO EDUCATE THE POPULACE HAS WORSENED ANY CHANCE TO ENDORSE THIS DECEMBER ELECTION BY OBTAINING 75% OF THE VOTING AS REQUIRED BY CONSTITUTION.