Ministry clarifies CRC position on election of MMDCEs

The statement said, for example, that the Progressive People’s Party’s reported assertion that “the recommendation of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) was for the direct and popular election of the MMDCEs,” was inaccurate.

It said Ghana currently had three categories of assemblies namely the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies. There are six metropolitan assemblies, 48 municipal assemblies and 162 district assemblies.

It said the CRC recommended a different approach for the emergence of chief executives for the three categories of assemblies.

It said there would be one approach for the selection of the chief executives for the six metropolitan assemblies, a different methodology for the 48 municipal assemblies and yet a different method for the 162 district assemblies.

“For the six metropolitan assemblies, the CRC recommended that: “the metropolitan chief executives should be popularly elected”.

This means for example that for the whole of Accra, covering the entire jurisdiction of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, there would be an election open to every eligible contestant to stand as the metropolitan chief executive and all eligible voters would have the opportunity to vote and elect one candidate.

“In short, this recommendation was for a pure political process,” the statement said.

It noted that in the case of the 48 municipal assemblies, it was the recommendation of the CRC that: “the President should nominate persons who would be vetted by the Public Services Commission (PSC) for competence, after which three nominees would contest in a public election”.

It said this proposal combined the legitimacy of a political process with an administrative/bureaucratic system.

The statement held that the CRC’s recommendation for the 162 district assemblies was that: “the President should nominate a candidate for approval by a simple majority of the assembly as DCEs”.

It said this recommendation was very close to the system which pertained.

“The key difference between the CRC’s proposal and the current situation is that at present, the approval of a DCE requires two-thirds majority of the assembly.

“Critically examined, the three proposals above mean that the emergence of chief executives was going to flow from an amalgam of processes.”

The statement said the government therefore sought to bring clarity to the process; as a result, the government had decided to adopt a uniform and pragmatic method for the emergence of chief executives for all categories of assemblies.

It said it was the view of the government that in “decentralising in a unitary state, a delicate balance ought to be struck between central control and local autonomy”.

It said the final decision was that “Article 243(1) of the 1992 Constitution should be amended for the President to nominate a minimum of five persons who would be vetted by the PSC for competence after which three of them would contest in a public election”.

The statement said the proposal would apply to all categories of assemblies and that the next step in the process was for Parliament to go through the proper procedures to carry out the amendment.

It maintained that until then, the status quo remained and expressed the hope that the explanation would bring some clarity to the issue of selecting DCEs.