Involve political parties in local govt elections — IDEG

There is the need for political parties to be involved in local government elections. The need has been made more urgent by the fact that the country has a “weak developmental governance capacity,” that does not enable it to grow or transform.

The imperative for the election of municipal, metropolitan and district chief executives (MMDCEs) at the local level along multiparty lines was presented by the Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, at a day’s retreat on the theme: “Democratic Devolution strengthens developmental governance.”

The retreat was organised by IDEG with the support of the Africa Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), OSIWA, OXFAM IBIS and Mondelez International.

Weak capacity

Giving reasons for the need, he said the last government proposed a 40-year developmental plan, while the current government was focusing on the industrialisation of the rural sector with policies such as the one-district, one-factory programme.

“Inherent in the differences of the development policies of the various governments was the challenge, which was the lack of consistency in bringing about change,” Dr Akwetey said.

“We do not, under the governance system, have the conditions that will enable us to systematically and continuously pursue the policies that will transform the economy to bring about the changes in the society the way we want it,” he said.

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He further explained that some challenges being faced in the country such as violence from groups or vigilante bodies were because growing numbers of the population were not being served and did not have part of the national cake.

“The resources are not responding to their needs and we have created a system that suggests that when you support a party and the party comes to power, they will favour you. But the more the party favours its supporters, the more we get a polarised society,” he said.

Development factors

Dr Akwetey said another imperative for reform was the fact that donors were pulling out their support from programmes, because the country was no longer classified as a poor country, but was now a middle-income economy.

That had also led to the European Union(EU) deciding not to fund the country’s elections.

The building of the capacities of parties to take up the challenge of active development at the local government was, therefore, long overdue.

He reminded participants that political parties were factors of change and development.