NPP should tell us where & when a consensus was reached on referendum – Nii Lante Vanderpuye

Member of Parliament(MP) for Odododiodoo constituency, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye has asked the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to refrain from lying continuously to Ghanaians that they had a concensus to vote for ‘Yes’ in the upcoming referendum on December 17, 2019.

He said the NPP should stop the rhetoric lies as “governance is not about lies.”

“They should tell us just one meeting, where and when they had a meeting about the referendum with us,” he said on Peace FM’s ‘kokrokoo’ morning show Friday.

According to him they only agreed during an Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) meeting on having an election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCE’s) but not on the referendum.

“It is never true . . . I am a Member of Parliament and the ranking member on Local government, all the meetings we’ve had at Parliament the focus is on Article 243(1) which we even said was not adequate,” he told sit-in host, Nana Yaw Kesseh.

He added that the NPP should spare Ghanaians all the noise about the election of the MMDCE’s as it is not even the brainchild of President Akufo-Addo.

“The proposal for the election of MMDCE’s was from Papa Kwesi Nduom when he was Flagbearer for the CPP . . It's not in the wisdom of President Akufo-Addo,” he clarified.

Members of the National House of Chiefs are also divided over their position on the exercise. While the President of the House of Chiefs says they support a ‘No' vote, some key members of the body have openly broken ranks with their leader.

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some civil society groups in the country are backing a ‘no vote’ claiming allowing political parties in local polls will further divide the country.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the other hand is for a YES vote arguing it will strengthen Ghana’s democracy.

Ghanaians will go to the polls on December 17 to decide whether the local government elections should be partisan or not.

The referendum, when accepted by Ghana, will seek to amend Article 55 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, where Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) will be elected based on partisanship.

Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution, which is an entrenched provision, states that “Subject to the provisions of this Article, a political party is free to participate in shaping the political will of the people, to disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programmes of a national character; and sponsor candidates for election to any public office other than the district assemblies or lower local government units”.