IDEG calls for constitutional amendment to allow political parties to contest local government elections

The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) has called for the amendment of the constitutional provision that bars political parties from participating in local governance elections in the country.

This, according to the institute, will open the space for the other political parties that are interested in the district level elections to also present their candidates for the electorate to vote for them.

The Director of Operations, IDEG, Mr Kofi Awity, said this ata day’s stakeholder forum in Tamale last Thursday on the participation of political parties in local governance.

Mr Awity said: “The system we have here is such that once we elect a president, he has the power and control over the resources; the fiscal and the material resources, and he singularly appoints 216 chief executives for all the metropolitan, municipal and district areas.

He added that the current governance system being operated in Ghana now was an exclusionary one, because it did not allow inclusive participation  in the governance process and that decisions were only made by the particular political party that was in power.

Exclusions breed violence

“These exclusions breed violence, threats, anger and so on, but opening up will mean each party will get the chance to serve at the local governance level, which will enable the control of resources, as well as strengthening our democracy and decentralization systems,” he reiterated.

Mr Akwity said although Ghana had practiced local governance for the past 30 years, its democratic system was still characterized by pockets of threats and violence during elections.

 “We have practiced local governance over three decades, from 1998 to 2017. The objective of local governance was to ensure popular participation of citizens in  governance, decentralization and accountability,” he said.

 Participants

Some of the participants said political parties were voted into power to use the resources given to them for required purposes, but they rather ended up embezzling them for their own personal gains.

They called on the government to make the issue of asset declaration more visible, so that the electorate could monitor politicians.

They lauded the IDEG for organising such a forum and pledged their support to the organisation whenever they needed them.

The forum was attended by chiefs, religious leaders, heads of institutions and representatives from the various political