Collins Dauda, Local Government and Rural Development Minister
A policy think tank, Ghana Growth and Development Platform (GGDP), has advocated for the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) across the country.
The Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), earlier in its recommendations, proposed that Metropolitan Chief Executives should be popularly contested.
However, according to the Interim Chairman of GGDP, Kwamena Esilfie Adjaye, all three local governance structures should elect their leaders by popular elections.
This, he says, will prevent what he calls the “hypocritical nature of the non-partisan status quo.”
“We are of the opinion that all three levels should be popularly elected not as the Constitutional Review Commission recommended that only metropolitan chiefs should be elected. We want metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives all three popularly elected… The current system is supposed to be non-partisan, it is not true, it is partisan, it is not working well. So many times in many areas you have contested elections because the president’s nominee is not accepted,” he said.
Speaking at the official launch of the group’s public debate on how the constitutional review process should be completed in Accra, Mr. Adjaye said “we have taken stock of the reality and we are saying if decentralisation is fully implemented, if they are being popularly elected, then naturally it will become partisan as is electing the president or electing Members of Parliament.”
The election of a new presiding member for the Kumasi Municipal Assembly (KMA), fraught with mild clashes, hit a dead end after the ninth time.
Mr. Adjaye believes electing MMDCEs by popular votes will prevent such situations from occurring.
