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The government is now awaiting Parliament's approval of a draft law amending Article 55 (3) of the Constitution in order to pave the way for the participation of political parties in elections to the Parliament. district level.
The bill, which had been approved by the Cabinet and published in the Gazette, expiring on May 24, was tabled in Parliament at first reading on May 28, 2019, said Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Local Government and Housing. Rural development.
She added that the ministry was also working to ensure that the law authorizing the president to appoint district chiefs (DCE) is obsolete.
She explained that the draft law amending Article 243 (1) on the appointment of MMDCE by the President had been approved by the Cabinet, published in the Official Journal, tabled in Parliament and referred to the Business Committee. Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Committees.
Announcing the Roadmap for the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembly (MMDA) elections in the "Rendez-vous-la-presse" series in Accra on Wednesday, Hajia Mahama recalled that the efforts for the election ECDs aimed to strengthen the country's democratic process.
The minister said a national campaign strategy had been developed to facilitate the holding of a national referendum that would run parallel to the district elections in December 2019, urging all stakeholders, especially the media, to to support the efforts of the campaign for the process to succeed.
Hajia Mahama said that as part of this process, the sector ministry had conducted a series of consultations and consultations with stakeholders in all regions. He had met with groups such as the Select Committee on Local Government, the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) and the Commission (EC).
In addition, the National House of Chiefs, political parties, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Federation of Muslim Councils of Ghana, and professional and civil society groups have all been engaged to ensure consensus.
She indicated that: "The MMDCE election roadmap was designed to be implemented in four phases: pre-referendum phase, referendum phase, post-referendum phase, change management phase and strengthening. capacities."
Ghana has put in place the current system of decentralization and local government since 1988. Despite notable progress, experts said that some gray areas needed to be improved to strengthen participatory governance and local democracy.
One of these gray areas was the need to generally elect the MMDCEs on a partisan basis in order to align with the mode of election of leaders at the national level.
Source: GNA
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