Review appointments to District Assemblies-Director

Ho, Sept. 1, GNA - Mr Issaka Richard Zakari, Volta Regional Director of the NCCE has called for a review of Government appointees to the district assemblies to make them non-partisan. He said contributions by appointees during assembly deliberations and debates proved that they were partisan.

Mr Zakari was speaking at a workshop organized by Community Action for Women Leaders on Participation in District Assembly Elections on the Theme "Getting a Head Start: Setting Women in Position to be Elected in 2006" at Ho.

The women were drawn from the Awudome, Asogli and Hokpe traditional areas.

Mr Zakari said women were managers of development and must forge ahead to win seats during assembly elections. "Good governance starts from the grassroots and women being managers of the home, should organize themselves economically and participate in local governance in their communities," he added. Speaking on the need for women to participate in the District Level Elections, Ms Lena Alai, Volta Regional Director of the NCWD recommended the establishment of gender focused organizations to serve as strong network in the region towards ensuring the entrance of more women to the district assemblies.

She said the interest of women to take part in elections should be whipped up through training programmes.

Ms Alai urged the organisers to sensitize the electorate on the benefit women would derive from the assemblies when more women were elected and called on families of aspiring women candidates and traditional rulers to support them.

Mrs. Victoria Nazah Gidiglo, Director of Programmes for Community Action said the workshop was aimed to strategically position women in readiness for next year's district level elections. She said it was one of the interventions of the UN system programme for Gender Equality in Ghana to promote a balance in the role of women and men in the society.

Mr Kofi Agbogah, Presiding Member of the Ho Municipal Assembly speaking on the non-partisan nature of the assembly persons work said the concept was not partisan but the inclusion of the government appointees who were supposed to be retired technical officers to offer their experiences to the assembly were partisan. He therefore suggested a review for the appointment of appointees to the assembly.

Reverend Monsignor Anthony Kornu, Vicar general of the Ho Catholic Diocese advised women to do away with selfishness and organized themselves well for the elections. 01 Sept.05