President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said at any point during his tenure of office the matter of the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives will be brought back again to the front burner of public discourse for the necessary action.
He said, his Government will continue to work for a broad, national consensus on this issue, and should such a consensus be attained for the repeal of article 55(3) of the Constitution, and an agreement reached for political parties to participate in and sponsor candidates for election to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.
Delivering
keynote address at the orientation ceremony held for newly confirmed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives at the Accra International Conference Centre, Nana Akufo Addo said that there is anything to fear in the direct election of Chief Executives, as it will, on the contrary, should lead to a deepening of democracy and better accountability.
On December 2nd the government officially withdrew plans to hold a referendum on December 17th over the election of Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).
The referendum had been scheduled to decide whether the 1992 constitution should be amended to allow the active participation of political parties in district-level elections through the sponsorship of candidates.
During the 2016 election campaign, the current Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo, promised to annul the appointment of MMDCEs by the governing party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP). However, many people in Ghana were opposed to the move to elect them, arguing that it would politicize local-level elections.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) opposed the local-level elections and was campaigning against the motion (as were many traditional leaders, whose authority would have been eroded, while the incumbent NPP were in favor of the motion.
Source Mybrytfmonline.com/Kofi Atakora
