Ghana's democracy too young to make elections partisan

Mr Kweku Ricketts Hagan, Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South Constituency, has said Ghana’s democracy is not mature enough to allow candidates to contest District Level elections (DLE) on the tickets of political parties.

According to him, Ghana was still in the learning process so far as democracy and politics were concerned, while many issues still needed to be understood and taken into consideration before DLE could be made partisan.

Mr. Hagan said this during a get-together he organized for the National Democratic Congress executives in the Cape Coast South Constituency, at the weekend.

“Our democracy is young, there are a lot of things we have not understood as a nation, for instance, when someone from NPP or NDC says or does something good, it is always bad in the eyes of the opposing side…, that is what is killing us,” he said. “But I believe with time, our politics would mature and be clean”.

He said with the current situation, assembly members would be serving the interest of their political parties should they be made to contest the election on party tickets.

Consequently, party politics should be kept out of the DLE so that the ultimate aim of going to the assembly to serve Ghana and not any political party would be achieved.

He said the District Assembly structures in existence offered equal opportunities, therefore, it was necessary to maintain them to ensure grassroots participation at the local level.

Mr. Hagan, who is also the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, complained about how unhealthy party politics at the national level had become an impediment to many developmental projects and also created division and enmity among many Ghanaians.

He, therefore, urged all Ghanaians to desist from the practice of unhealthy politicking, which he said, was “killing the nation”.

“It is only political tolerance that would bring the development that the nation requires,” he said.