Assembly elections: Frank K. Pinto campaigns for active participation of youth

Ghana would soon go to the polls to elect Assemblymen and women to occupy the various Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies across the country making up the local government architecture.

However, due to the experience of witnessing the realities of a true lack of developmental projects at the community level and the visible symptoms of bad governance staring the country, many of the productive youth, hitherto the key stakeholders, have become disappointed, reluctant, disenchanted in the country's democratic process and therefore wouldn't take active part in the country's impending local Assembly elections.

In addressing this problem and general voter apathy likely to hit the electoral process as witnessed in the past, a stalwart of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kwesimintsim Constituency in Western Region, Ing. Frank K. Pinto, has appealed passionately to the youth of the country to actively, and proactively involve themselves in the ongoing electoral processes.

According to him, active participation of the youth of the country in the local assembly elections would certainly deepen the country's democratic credentials and improve good governance generally.

In an article put together by the Engineer, he explained the significance of the local Assembly elections and its repercussions on all other national polls.

Read Frank K. Pinto's write-up on the youth's engagement in local assembly elections below:

The significance of district assembly election on general election:

Over the period, the Local Government system has allowed the decentralization of District, Municipal, and Metropolitan Assemblies to be part of decision-making in various localities across Ghana.

However, the participation and involvement of indigenous people, making up the local communities, and interest groups, such as youth, women, and the disabled among others, in the concerned localities, have been relatively poor.

Over the period, the Local Government system has allowed the decentralization of District, Municipal, and Metropolitan Assemblies to be part of decision-making in the various localities. However, the participation and involvement of the indigenous, communities, groups, youth, etc. in the concerned localities have been poor (Bebelleh F. D. et al, 2013).

It is believed by many Ghanaians that the successfully elected assemblymen and women in the various electoral areas in the country, would ordinarily have automatic influence and somewhat obtain control over their respective electorates, when indeed it is not so.

It is rather unfortunate to note, that this element of ideology, as harbored by many Ghanaians, can not be phantom as true in its entirety for all the cases.

Ghanaians are becoming more aware of their developmental rights in the recent past. This has necessitated the respective indigenous people avoiding the imposition of Assembly Men and Women on them and rather taking the center stage of the selection process; the reason for the Assembly Elections becoming more competitive which hitherto would have been different.

Given the situation where political parties see their fortunes in the District Assembly Elections, and as the beginning of mobilization ahead of the partisan national polls, it is clear that the Assembly elections are gradually becoming more intense than ever imagined before.

This also results in the intermeddling of the whole selection process amongst a significant number of political parties across the globe.

Interested parties must however remember that the dynamics of general elections are entirely different in one way or the other. The narrative is not always commutative. It is a dependent function of base rather than alignment. The difference must be noted by all concerned parties.

The Executive Director and Researcher at Energy & Associates concluded his article with an advice to the youth to own the process of the impending Assembly elections to secure amplifying voices that would make a difference at the various Assemblies and ultimately impact their communities.