Day: June 12, 2024

Stakeholders at a training workshop on National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) held in Ho have reiterated the need to review the selection of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and Assembly members into local governance structure.

They debated on whether MMDCEs and Assembly members should be elected on partisan basis, with some participants arguing that election of MMDCEs would end their perennial rejection by Assembly members and do away with the system where nominees give huge ‘envelopes’ before approval.

Some of the participants said the current situation placed a lot of financial burden on the nominee MMDCEs, who ‘would do everything possible to recoup his or her money spent during the process.’

Others argued that once the candidate had been elected by the electorate, the canker would cease.

However, other participants disagreed with the suggestion of electing the MMDCEs, arguing that the status quo had to remain.

Arguing in favour of election of Assembly members, Mr.
Cletus Chevure, Kadjebi District Coordinating Director, said ‘we cannot continue pretending that assembly members don’t campaign on partisan basis’ although Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution bars them from doing so.

He said even during District Assembly Sittings, debates were at times held on partisan line, which was not supposed to be and that electing them on partisan basis would end all the pretenses.

Madam Victoria Dzeklo, the Presiding Member (PM), South Tongu District Assembly, contributing, said ‘it is time we elected MMDCEs’.

‘This will prevent the President’s nominee from paying heavy amount to assembly members for his confirmation’, she said.

Madam Dzeklo, however, disagreed with the idea of electing assembly members on partisan line because ‘it is the only opportunity for Ghanaians who do not belong to any political party to also join or participate freely or openly in choosing their community leaders.’.

Mr. Derek Adzoe, the Presiding Member of Hohoe Municipal Assembly, contributing, dis
agreed on the election of MMDCEs as ‘there will be sabotage of government policies and programmes at the local levels, especially if the Chief Executive elected is not a member of the ruling government’.

On Assembly members election, he said ‘assembly members are the agents of development in their electoral areas. They are to unite their electorates for development projects when they are elected on partisan grounds, they can’t lobby if their government is not in power.’

Meanwhile, a Centre for Democratic Development survey in 2021 shows that 76 per cent of Ghanaians favour the election of MMDCEs with only 20 per cent wanting them to be appointed by the President.

It noted that while two-thirds of respondents (71 per cent) say they prefer MMDCEs elected on non-partisan election format like that used in local government councilor’s election, only 20 per cent opted for a partisan election format.

The reasons for the preference for non-partisan election format for MMDCEs included ensuring competent persons ge
t elected (29%), promotion of inclusivity/forestalling winner takes all challenges (22%), prevention of partisan influences/conflicts (21%) and promotion of transparency and accountability (1.9%).

Among those calling for partisan election of MMDCEs, the majority believe the current format for local government election had been tainted by partisan influences and must be opted up to promote public interest in local elections.

Others (1.9 %) think it would promote responsiveness and development, ensure that competent persons get elected, promote transparency, and enable citizens to exact accountability from political parties.

President, Akufo-Addo in 2019 initiated two bills, seeking to achieve two major local gove

President authority to appoint MMDCEs to make these position electives and to hold a referendum to seek citizens support to amend the Article 55(3) of the Constitution.

However, in December 2019, the referendum was suspended for lack of broad national consensus, forcing the Attorney-General to wi
thdraw the bill.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Isaac Osei, Board Chairman of the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority, says the NPP has a proven track record of infrastructural development in the Ashanti region.

He said the Ashanti region, considered as the stronghold of the NPP, had never been neglected in terms of development projects, as was being falsely propagated by the opponents of the party.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Kumasi, Mr Osei, who is also a former Member of Parliament for Subin, pointed out that, the NPP had made significant strides in providing infrastructural development, which was helping to improve the living conditions of the people in the region.

He highlighted the extensive projects and policy interventions which had been implemented by the NPP government and said the NPP had contributed immensely to the development of Ashanti region than any other political party.

‘The government of President Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia has done a lot in the Ashanti region and all over the place.

Whether you are talking
about infrastructure or the number of people who have passed through school as a result of the new policy on education by the government, it is obvious that this government has done great things here, he said.

Mr Osei, who was also a former Ghana’s High Commission to the United Kingdom, cited the recent opening of the Kumasi International Airport and ongoing works at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, as prime examples of the government’s commitment to the region.

‘This government, I think has been fantastic for the people of Ashanti.

We know that it is not just Ashanti.

All over the country, the NPP government is going to work and work very hard to ensure that we deliver a victory for the NPP and that we have Dr Bawumia as our next President,’ he stated.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The claim that National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs) are against a proposed Free Senior High School (SHS) Bill is totally false, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, NDC Parliamentary Minority Leader, has stated.

‘There is currently no such bill before Parliament. We cannot oppose a bill that we have not seen,’ Dr Forson stated in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency.

‘For the records, it was the NDC that birthed the 1992 Constitution which provided the legal framework for the introduction of Free Secondary Education in Ghana.’

He explained it was the NDC that commenced the implementation of the Free SHS program in the year 2015 for all day students in public senior high schools, totaling over 320,000, with a clear plan to expand coverage to include 120,000 boarding students by 2017.

Dr Forson said the position of the NDC on the Free SHS programme was publicly communicated by Mr John Dramani Mahama, the NDC’s Flagbearer and Leader, was to improve the implementation of the programme
and address the challenges bedeviling it through a consultative approach.

‘Thus, the NDC will support any legislation or effort aimed at making the Free SHS programme better and sustainable,’ Dr Forson said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has called on Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President and Presidential aspirant of the NPP in the December elections, to take bold steps to review the chieftaincy Act, if elected as president.

The review of the Act, according to the Asantehene, would enable chiefs to collaborate well with government and actively participate in the development process of the country.

It would also empower chiefs who were the custodians of the land, to partner well with the government in the fight against illegal mining, which was destroying the country’s river bodies, forests, land and other natural resources.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu made the call, when the Vice President called on him at the Manhyia palace in Kumasi, as part of his three-day campaign tour of the Ashanti region.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu, also asked the Flag-bearer to work to ensure improvement in the allowances provided to the various traditional councils as he had already promised to do.

He said if given the mandate, Dr Bawumia shoul
d strive to continue all ongoing infrastructural developments projects across the country, while undertaking major ones that could help position the country well on the path of growth and sustainable development.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu asked the Vice President to explain his laudable vision to enable the people appreciate and understand him well and vote for him in the December elections.

The Vice President had earlier on, called on the Chief of Kenyase in the Kwabre East Municipality and pledged his commitment to ensure the completion of the ongoing road projects in the area.

He also inspected the agenda 111 Project, currently going on in the Municipality and inspected the Mampongteng town roads and promised to put them in good condition.

Dr Bawumia again, visited the Opoku Ware Senior High School and presented over 4000 tablets to the students.

This is part of the smart school initiative being implemented by the government to ensure quality educational delivery in the technological age.

Source: Ghana News
Agency

A swift intervention from the Ketu Divisional Police Command has prevented any physical altercations from occurring at the Ketu South District Registration Review Committee (DRRC) sitting.

Wednesday’s sitting, the 14th by the Committee to review challenged cases in the just-ended limited voter registration exercise was interrupted for hours due to disagreement between agents of the two major political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) requiring heavy Police presence to maintain order.

This followed one Mr Deku, a challenged applicant, who was cleared by the Committee and had his card released to him, much to the dissatisfaction of his challenger and NPP agent, Mr Dennis Gator, and his colleagues, and which infuriated their counterpart NDC agents, resulting in the commotion.

The NPP agents told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that District Electoral Commission (EC) Officer and the Ketu South DRRC failed in doing due diligence before clearing the said challenged pe
rson saying, theirs was to ensure a clean voter register for Ketu South to bar ineligible persons especially non-Ghanaian nationals from participating in the December polls.

‘We realised an inconsistency in what the challenged applicant said regarding the house he claims to live in at Aveyiborme. Instead of the EC officer and the Committee doing further investigations, they voted among themselves and gave the card to him. Is one’s nationality determined through votes?’

The NDC agents on the other hand said the NPP agents during the limited voter registration process were on a ‘challenge spree’ looking for the least opportunity to challenge any eligible applicant and that they were on a similar mission to disrupt the Committee’s sittings to disenfranchise people and that, they would not allow that to happen.

Mr Kofi Sakyi Boampong, the District EC Officer explained to the GNA that the Committee after reviewing the case against the said challenged applicant, its Chairman (now in the person of Mr Joseph Etse)
said he should be cleared so, the card was released to him.

He denied any wrongdoing by the Committee in the case saying, where the challenger could not provide any evidence to prove the ineligibility of an applicant, the Committee had always taken a unanimous decision and in the absence of that, it resorted to voting.

Mr Boampong also bemoaned the ‘back and forth’ which was hindering the Committee’s work saying, there were a total of 1,602 challenged applicants in the just-ended registration and after 13 sittings, only about 416 cases were dealt with, resulting in the release of 387 cards and retention of 29 with about 1,186 cases still pending.

He feared should the back and forth continue, some challenged applicants might not be given a fair chance at hearing as already, ‘the stipulated time for review of challenged applications was 4th June and we had to make a case for the extension of time for Ketu South because of the huge numbers involved.’

The Committee Wednesday began sitting at 0900hours but as
at 1240hours, only four of the challenged cases were dealt with.

Mr Etse, the one replacing Torgbui Anubo IV, believed to be heeding medical advice to stay away from the Committee due to the stress involved, as the Chairman refuted allegations that he had proven to be a member of the NDC saying, ‘I don’t belong to any political party and I’m on this Committee only as a representative of Ghana Education Service.’

Source: Ghana News Agency