Government says plans are underway to reintroduce the processes for partisan activities to be allowed in district-level elections.
At a press briefing Wednesday, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Alima Mahama said the Akufo-Addo administration is keen on decentralising democracy across the hierarchy of governance.
She noted that government, through her outfit, will complete consultations on the matter, build consensus, and ensure the amendment of the constitution to allow for the participation of political parties at the local level.
“The Akufo-Addo government has sent out very strong signals that it intends to get District Chief Executives (DCEs) elected. This is an inevitable consequence of any decision to make the local government system partisan,” she stated.
In 2019, President Nana Akufo-Addo pushed for a referendum to be held in order to determine whether Article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution should be amended for political parties to sponsor candidates for local level elections.
However, on December 1, 2019, the President, in a televised address to the nation, announced the cancellation of the referendum which was supposed be held on December 17, 2019.
The President stated that his government will work to attain a broad national consensus on the referendum because it is as important as the amendment of an entrenched provision of the Constitution.
This, according to her, is being implemented because the government’s aim to introduce partisan activities into district-level elections has not been forgotten.
She further stated that the government’s failure to attain the amendment of the 1992 constitution is one of the critical disappointments of the governing New Patriotic Party.
However, she added that President Akufo-Addo is ready to honour that promise he made during the 2016 election campaign should he be given a second term come December 7.