NewzA member of Parliament’s Local Government and Rural Development Committee, John Darko, has criticised the government’s proposed model for electing Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs). He argued that allowing the executive to shortlist candidates defeats the purpose of direct elections.Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story, during a discussion on the government’s response to the Constitutional Review Committee’s recommendations, Mr Darko said the proposal represents a departure from the committee’s recommendation that MMDCEs be elected through an open, non-partisan process.“I think it’s clear that government has moved from the position that was advanced by the committee that it set up,” he said on Tuesday, August 4.Mr. Darko recalled that the National Democratic Congress (NDC), while in opposition, opposed the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s proposal to amend the Constitution to allow political parties to sponsor candidates for MMDCE elections ahead of the planned 2019 referendum.“The proposal that the previous administration brought was to enable political parties to sponsor candidates and then allow the voters to directly elect who becomes their chief executive.
The NDC fought against this and said they didn’t want political parties to be involved because the process should remain non-partisan,” he said.Mr. Darko contended that although the current government now supports electing MMDCEs, its proposal to screen and shortlist candidates before presenting them to voters still gives the executive excessive influence over the process.“You cannot have a situation where, for instance, the NDC is in government, presents three people to us, and then asks the people to select one of them,” he argued.“On what basis would the government do the selection? It is the same thing we are talking about.
The only difference is that the government presents those three people to us.”He questioned why voters should be restricted to choosing from government-approved candidates instead of being allowed to elect anyone who qualifies to contest.“Why can’t the people in the constituency decide that out of the three we don’t want any of them?” he asked.“Give us the opportunity to vote for anybody we want.”Mr. Darko said a truly non-partisan election would encourage candidates to campaign on local development priorities rather than national party po… Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Local Government and Rural Development Committee, Akwesi Agbeve, has rejected claims that the government has abandoned proposals to elect Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).
He insists that the new constitutional reform proposal merely modifies the selection process rather than discarding public elections.Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Tuesday, August 4, during a discussion on the government’s response to the Constitutional Review Committee’s recommendations, Mr. Agbeve said suggestions that the government had departed from the committee’s proposal were based on a misunderstanding of the revised model.“First of all, government has not moved away from that. It’s a matter of interpretation,” he said.He explained that while the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) recommended a system in which individuals would freely contest MMDCE positions in a non-partisan election, the government is proposing a structured process that still culminates in a public vote.According to him, under the proposed arrangement, five prospective candidates would be nominated and subjected to screening and interviews before the list is reduced to three candidates.Those three would then be presented to residents of the district, who would elect their preferred candidate.“The CRC is recommending that local government elections should be done as if we are voting for assembly members, where individuals can pick forms and put themselves up for election,” he said.“However, the government is suggesting that five people will be recommended, screened and interviewed, after which three will be presented to the district for the people to select or elect the best among them.”Mr.
Agbeve argued that the proposal recognises Ghana’s political realities, noting that although district-level elections are officially non-partisan, political parties continue to influence the process.“Let’s be honest. We shouldn’t pretend with this thing. During elections, we all know it is not partisan.
On paper it is, but in practice it is not,” he stated.He said the government believes some level of oversight is necessary to ensure that local government leaders are capable of implementing national development policies effectively.“For government policy to be implemented well at the grassroots level, I still think we need personalities who understand what the g…
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