Don’t contest D/A elections for popularity sake - DCE

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Wassa East, Mr. Anthony Aggrey, has said contesting district assembly elections was an opportunity to bring to light some development challenges facing an electoral area.

He said having served as DCE twice, he had observed that some individuals vigorously campaigned and won assembly elections just for popularity sake and failed to make any meaningful contributions when debating issues at assembly sittings.

Mr. Aggrey appealed to aspiring assembly members to be dedicated and committed to the cause of their electoral areas by constantly being in touch with the people and to convey their concerns to the assembly.

He said this at a stakeholders’ meeting organized by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), in Daboase, on Wednesday, to sensitize aspiring assembly members, youth groups, women associations, students and the public on the need to participate in the up-coming district level elections (DLE)

He said the DLE was opportunity for persons who wanted to build political careers in the future to start serving the people at the grassroots level so that their commitment to the cause of national development could be tested.

The District Director for NCCE, Mr. Andrew Acquah, said the Region witnessed low turnout in 2010 DLE with just 34 percent and appealed to Ghanaians to participate in this year’s process since it formed the basic governance structure of the Local Government concept.

He said the NCCE had undertaken a number of public education campaigns since last year, to whip up the interest of the electorate in the DLE.

He entreated the electorate to be tolerant of opposing views so that the DLE would be conducted in an atmosphere of peace and harmony.

The participants mentioned some concerns and challenges that resulted in low turnout at DLE as lack of education and publicity by NCCE and other state institutions mandated to sensitize the public, apathy due to failure by successive assembly members to deliver on their promises, lack of funds to undertake vigorous campaigns, among others.