Referendum: ChaLoG commends NDC leadership and National House of Chiefs for their progressive ‘Vote No’ stance

The Chamber for local Governance (ChaLoG) has lauded the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the National House of Chiefs for their “Vote No” stance in the upcoming referendum.

The NDC party had earlier called on Ghanaians to vote against the proposal to amend the constitution to allow political parties to participate in the District level elections.

According to the NDC, when District Assembly elections are made partisan, there will be party-motivated projects and programmes such as ‘NDC Communal Labour Day’ and ‘NPP Communal Labour Day’, particularly in rural areas.

At a press conference, the NDC Chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, said a YES vote, will open district assemblies and unit committees to “the needless NDC-NPP polarization.”

Adding its voice to “No” stance, the National House of Chiefs in a press release said the house was against the government’s position on the December 17 referendum because of the adverse effects of partisan politics on local level development.

The Chiefs, among other things is concerned “the introduction of partisan politics into local government will be accompanied by the unwholesome political culture and the corruption associated with partisan politics, which according to them has already done a lot of harm to our society. ”

With the said submissions from the NDC and the National House of Chiefs, the Chamber seems to be enthused with the stance taken by the two entities and has out rightly called on Ghanaians to reject the proposal to amend Article 55(3).

According to the Chamber, “the call to ‘Vote No’ has no doubt boosted significantly the campaign to educate Ghanaians on the dangers of what it described as  the government’s needless proposal to Ghanaians to amend Article 55(3) to make our local government elections partisan.

ChaLoG in a press release wants to reaffirm its total objection to the amendment of Article 55(3) and has therefore called on all Ghanaians to VOTE NO to maintain the sanctity of the local government system.

They believe, doing this will help prevent and also avoid “Increased Corruption in MMDAs because Assembly and Unit Committee Members are not paid, politicization of development projects in MMDAs and electoral areas.

Additionally, they said it will also prevent taking away the important role of chiefs in local governance, politicisation of communal labor as elected assembly and unit committee members are likely to belong to different political parties, development projects now to be driven by political party interest and not community based interest.

The Chamber for Local Governance is, therefore, calling on all Ghanaians to come out in their numbers on Tuesday, December 17, 2019 to reject the proposal to amend Article 55(3) by voting NO (Dark Brown Colour) to still keep our Local Government System Non Partisan for a total and holistic development in the various MMDAs devoid of partisan politics.

Article 55/3 of the Constitution

Currently, the clause prevents political parties from participating in District Level Elections.

The law, in Article 243 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, says District Chief Executives for every Metropolitan, Municipal and District are to be appointed by the President with the prior approval of not less than two-thirds majority of members of the assembly present and voting at the meeting.

But ahead of Parliament’s amendment of Article 423(1 )to change the position of MMDCEs from an appointed one to elected one, the referendum is being held to allow/prevent political parties field candidates at that level.

The ‘No’ campaigners argue that the division and polarity at the national level must not be extended to the local government.

However, the government and its party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who are leading the campaign for Yes say multi-party democracy must be extended to all nooks of the country.

A Yes voter agrees that all elections at the local government level (Unit Committee members, Assemblymen and MMDCEs) should all see political parties participating and a No voter seeks to prevent same.

However, no matter the result from the referendum, MMDCEs can only be elected if MPs complete the process of amending Article 243/1.

The Bill is at the Second Reading in the House.

The referendum needs 40 per cent of eligible voters turning out to vote and 75 per cent voting Yes for the amendment to pass.