Retired Justice calls for election of all assembly members

Professor Justice A. K. P. Kludze, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court (SC), has called for the election of all assembly members to help strengthen the nation’s decentralization programme.

He said the present power of the president to appoint one-third of each assembly was undemocratic, and distorts the concept of decentralization.

Professor Kludze, who made the call on Thursday in Accra at the Institute of Economic Affairs roundtable discussion, said the current situation enables the President of the day to have his way on practically every major issue, including the election of the Chief Executive.

The event was on the theme: “Post-electoral disputes resolution: Fostering peace, national cohesion and reconciliation after the SC ruling”.

“When the members of the assemblies are all directly elected, we would have local government in the true sense with the assembly members answerable to the people,” he said.

He said the local government decentralization law must be amended in order to allow political parties to part take in local elections.

Prof Kludze said this would enable young party members to have the necessary experience before moving up the political ladder to serve at the national level, adding that it would make the system truly democratic as an opposition party might control a local assembly so well as to influence politics at the national level.

He said Chief Executives of the assemblies must also be elected by the members which would make them accountable to the assemblies.

Prof Kludze said the incident of “winner takes all” might be reduced as the new central government would not necessarily be in control of all the assemblies, saying “the assemblies must be endowed with power to raise revenue”.