‘Come out to vote on December 17’
The Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies, Dr Nicholas Awortwi, has encouraged Ghanaian registered voters to come out in their numbers to vote during the December 17 referendum.
He explained that failure to do so would lead to the inability to obtain at least 40 per cent (seven million) registered voter turnout. Consequently, he said the referendum would be automatically declared null and void or by default, it would have no effect no matter whether the Yes or No has the majority votes.
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"So it has to be 40 per cent voter turnout and given that local government elections normally do not attract voters, it is important people are educated on how important this referendum is," he added.
MMDCEs
Dr Awotwi gave the advice in an interview with the Daily Graphic after he made a presentation on the partisan election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) at a Town Hall meeting organised by the Ga South Municipal Assembly.
He called on the Ghanaian electorate to vote ‘Yes’ during the referendum in order to introduce multiparty politics into the local level governance system.
He pointed out that the current non-partisan local governance system had broken down because it did not fix roads nor provide very much of the basic services the people needed because the resources and power that the local governance system needed to effect development were always centered at the national level.
"Close to 90 per cent of the country's resources are at the central government level, yet development happens at the local government level where they do not have the power and resources. So this referendum is meant to introduce political system at the local level, something that has not been introduced since the country's independence in 1957," he emphasised.
Importance
Touching on the importance of voting ‘Yes’ in the referendum, Dr Awotwi said it would bring innovation at the local government level and also put every political party under pressure to perform at the local level because that is where people would see what they are doing.
He added that a ‘Yes’ vote would compel MMDCEs to go out on their own to look for resources to initiate development projects in their areas without waiting on the central government.
He asked people not to allow their emotions and resentment about central government politicians to cloud their judgement that the same thing would happen at the local government level when multiparty politics was introduced.
On the concerns raised by chiefs that introducing multiparty politics into local governance would prevent them from participating in local governance, Dr Awotwi responded that the fact that Article 55 of the Constitution would be amended did not mean that all chapters on representation would be closed, adding that, from December 17, 2019 to December 2021, when the next local government elections would be held, there would be time to address all those concerns to cater for the interest of the chiefs.
"For now, the most important thing is to vote Yes in the referendum. There is no alternative. Ghana is the only country that I know that you have a multiparty system at the national level but you have a single party controlling local governance to the extent of selecting the staff. I can't see why we elect our President on party system but at the local level, where things are close to us and we can access individuals, we still want the President to appoint the staff."
Changes
He mentioned Lagos and Kenya as places where a lot of changes occurred as a result of the introduction of multiparty politics at the local governance level.
In his address, the Municipal Chief Executive of the Ga South Municipal Assembly, Mr Joseph Nyarni Stephen, asked the people within his municipality to come out in their numbers to vote ‘Yes’ in the upcoming referendum.
He said this was to ensure that power was given to the grassroots to elect their own leaders on partisan basis.
The Member of Parliament for the Bortianor Ngleshie Amanfro Constituency, Alhaji Habib Saad, also asked the electorate to vote ‘Yes’ in the referendum.
Present at the Town Hall Meeting were the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Ishmael Ashitey, chiefs in the municipality, assembly members, heads of department of the assembly and security agencies as well as the people in the municipality who took turns to ask questions.
