The Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) and the Civic
Forum Initiative (CFI) are proposing the election of Metropolitan,
Municipal and District Chief Executives on the tickets of political parties.
This, they say will ensure the Chief Executives are the outcome of popular
votes and thus be accountable to their constituents. This was among a number of
proposals discussed at a forum organized by the two organizations and partners
in Ho towards reforming multi-party governance, amendments to the 1992
constitution, devolution of power and decentralization. Lead discussants at the
discourse were Mr. Kwesi Jonah, Senior Research Fellow, IDEG, Major-General
Carl Nii Coleman, Chairman CFI and Reverend Dr Fred Degbee former General
Secretary, Christian Council of Ghana. Rather than lead to disharmony between
the ruling government and opposition MMDCEs, the discussants explained that
this would rather encourage consultation and consensus building, citing a
number of examples from Africa such as Uganda and across the World. They say
such positive working relationships would inure to good and accountable governance
and competitive performance to the benefit of the people. Under the 1992
Constitution, the President nominates a candidate for the Office of MMDCE who
must be endorsed by two-thirds of the Assembly members. This, IDEG and CFI
argue isolates the MMDCEs from the citizenry with no compelling reason to be
accountable to them. They said though the 1992 Constitution provided for
non-partisan local government elections and governance the opposite has been
the case and it is time to face the fact and make local governance competitive
and result oriented
Source: Joy
No comments:
Post a Comment