Open up assemblies for multi-party contest — IDEG
The Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) is championing the opening up of district and municipal assemblies for multi-party contest.
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The institute wants Ghana to have political parties contesting for the control of district and municipal assemblies by 2020 as a way of deepening democracy.
In line with that, it is seeking to get the commitment of political parties on the agenda in the run-up to the 2016 elections.
In a public conversation on “Strengthening democratic development through multi-party-based local government; South Africa, Kenya and Ghana in Focus,” facilitators from South Africa and Kenya emphasised how the contest for better participation in governance had been fought and won by citizens.
The public dialogue was organised with the support of STAR-Ghana, the Daily Graphic and other partners.
Power to be involved
Speaking on the topic with special focus on the South African experience, the Executive Director of Excelsior Afrika Consulting, Dr Matlotleng Matlou, said the devolution of power for South Africans was within the context of exploitation by a white minority.
He said those were times of the rule by the law, which had to be changed to the rule of law with the advent of constitutional democracy and the toppling of apartheid.
Dr Matlou said in the mid-1990s with constitutional rule, the idea of local governance was first introduced and with that came the issue of the equitable sharing of resources.
‘’In addition were other independent governance institutions such as the Constitutional Court,’’ he said.
Dr Matlou said at the heart of all the struggles were the sacrifices of people for the power to evolve and vote.
A public policy analyst and Social Accountability Advisor at the World Vision, UK, Mr Donald Mongeni, in his views on the Kenyan experience said various piecemeal efforts at reforms to devolve power to the people would not have been successful without the participation of citizens.
He said within the Kenyan context, the scale of decentralisation was both ambitious and risky, with various local government administrations, eight provincial administrations, 175 local authorities and a host of other authorities being collapsed into 47 counties.
There was also the need for balance in the context of an ethnically diverse society and prescriptions by the constitution for inclusion.
“It’s a ship we are building as we sail,” he said, describing the challenging processes that were still ongoing to show that decentralisation was work in progress.
“It is a step of faith. Do not be afraid of the ifs, ifs, ifs… continue talking and having conversations on the issues,” he urged Ghanaians.
Mr Mongeni was, however, elated in his report on progress made, “We are a country of 48 governments, but one nation.”
The processes, he maintained, had resulted in local governors insisting on the interests of localities when the government tried to interfere.
Position
A research fellow of IDEG, Mr Kwesi Jonah, who presented the Ghana situation, admitted that the country’s democratic system had served well, but had not with time successfully dealt with the dynamics of change.
He described the decentralisation system as “a super structure,” that had been superimposed on a substructure with no mechanisms for accountability.
Thus, there was the need to cure the weaknesses, and hence, IDEG’s proposals which were for the country to elect its district chief executives on the ticket of a political party for the opening up of local governance.
The chairperson for the event was Mrs Angela Dwamena Aboagye, the Executive Director of the Ark Foundation.
