The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference has urged Ghanaians, especially Christians to exercise their civic and Christian responsibility by going out in their numbers to vote in December 17, 2019, District level elections and Referendum.
According to the Catholic Bishops, in the past, turn out in District Level Election is not encouraging and called on registered voters to exercise their political responsibility by voting on December 17 to elect people of their choice.
This was contained in a communiqué issued and signed by the President of the Bishop Conference Most Reverend Philip Naameh at the end of 2019 Plenary General Assembly held in Elmina in the Central Region.
“We shall be voting in a historic national referendum. In this referendum, all citizens will answer a simple question on whether or not we favour the amendment of our national constitution to allow political parties to campaign and present candidates for Metropolitan, Municipal and District elections and other Local Government Units.”
“We have an important civic and Christian responsibility to make our voices heard on this matter. Let us put Ghana first and vote massively in the referendum on Tuesday, December 17, 2019,” the Bishops’ urged.
The 2019 National Referendum is to enable citizens to vote on the proposed amendment of Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution that currently bars political parties from participating in District Level Elections (DLEs).
The proposed amendment is to introduce multi-party participation in the Local Government system in Ghana.
This provision as entrenched in the constitution can only be amended if 40% of persons eligible to vote to show up and 75% of the voters vote ‘YES’ in favour of the amendment.
A successful amendment of Article 55 (3) will make room for political parties to sponsor candidates for District Assemblies of Lower Local Government units.
Source: Kofi Atakora/Joydaddymultimedia.com
