Referendum is waste of resources — JOY
The two-time Independent Presidential Candidate in the 2012 and 2016 elections, Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah (JOY), has described the December 17 referendum as a "waste" of the nation's resources.
"There is no justification to support the December 17 referendum. It is unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers’ money," he stated.
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He has, therefore, called on Ghanaians to vote ‘No’ in the upcoming referendum to ensure that the local government system remained non-partisan.
He was speaking at the second Emotional Intelligence Summit at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) on the -theme: “Building national character - The role of emotional intelligence”.
“It is extremely important and legally instructive for Ghanaians to note that the referendum question -- “Are you in favour of the bill to amend Clause 3 of Article 55 of the 1992 Constitution to allow political parties to sponsor candidates for election to district assemblies or lower local government units?” does not connote the election of MMDCEs that Ghanaians desire so much. So the referendum question is dishonest or fraudulent,” he said.
MMDCEs election
Mr Yeboah said most Ghanaians wanted their Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to be elected, rather than by the partisan appointment of the President as stipulated in Article 243 (1) of the 1992 Constitution.
“We can achieve this objective by amending Article 243(1) which is not entrenched. This means Parliament can amend without any costly referendum that will cause us to borrow from foreigners.
“If Parliament does the amendment, it reinforces the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution to protect the governance at the district level from partisan polarisation, winner-takes-all, vigilantism, cronyism, corruption and lawlessness as we’ve all witnessed for the past 27 years in the 4th Republic,” he stated.
Mr Yeboah pointed out that Parliament had almost completed all due processes to amend Article 243 (1), hence there was “no need for a referendum on 17th December, 2019”.
Party sponsorship
On the issue of political parties directly sponsoring MMDCEs and assembly members, he said the thought was flawed considering the dangers of partisan politics at the national level.
“But why should Ghanaians vote ‘Yes’ to amend Article 55(3) to destroy the peace and stability our democratic experiment has achieved within the sub-region and on the African continent? Because at the national level where we have political parties election, we have witnessed brute wickedness of vigilantism, unrepentant proud thievery, lawlessness, killings, cronyism and dysfunctional democracy which are destroying our national core values and moral fibre,” he pointed out.
