New Juaben North and South launch campaign on referendum

The New Juaben North and South Municipal Assemblies have launched separate campaigns to sensitise their respective residents to massively participate in the upcoming referendum to be organised by the Electoral Commission of Ghana on December 17, 2019.

The two Assemblies have also called on electorate to go out in their numbers to vote in favour of the referendum since according to the 1992 Constitution, 40 percent of registered voters need to turn up to vote and 70 percent of the votes cast must be in favour of the question posed to allow for the amendment of Article 55 (3) of the Constitution.

The upcoming referendum, when successful with majority of Ghanaians voting YES, would mean that the entrenched Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution will be amended and political parties can begin to sponsor candidates, allow their symbols and logos to be used by the candidates and as well be able to canvass for votes for them.

As a result, Article 243 (1) which mandates the President to appoint MMDCEs would also be amended to allow the electorate to directly elect their preferred candidate to pursue and provide their desired development.

As part of activities to achieve this goal, the two Municipal Assemblies have indicated that they would organise door-to-door sensitisation as well as public forums in the various local communities in the municipalities to get majority of their residents to appreciate the need to support the District Level Elections to be held on partisan basis.

Launching the campaign during a Meet the Press session in Koforidua, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of New Juaben South, Mr. Isaac Appaw-Gyasi, argued that the referendum would improve governance at the local level and that there would be a need for the citizens to understand it well in order to vote YES come December 17.

He called on the media to use their powerful platforms to urge the Ghanaian populace to participate in the referendum and to vote YES to amend the entrenched Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution which prohibits the District Level Elections to be organised on partisan basis.

“I entreat you all media practitioners to support us to remove some of the bottlenecks of a successful implementation of local governance,” Mr. Appaw-Gyasi implored.

On her part at Effiduase, Madam Comfort Asante, the MCE for New Juaben North, underscored the relevance of organising the DLE on partisanbasis, saying, it would offer the local people the opportunity to directly be involved in determining their own development path.

She called on all to embrace the partisanship of the DLE since it would give power to the electorate to elect their MMDCEs and also vote them out if they are unsatisfied with their work output.

Both MCEs separately pledged the government’s commitment to deepening democracy at the local level.

The two MCEs made presentations showcasing the progress made in areas of health, education, security and agriculture among other government flagship programmes including planting for food and jobs as well as one district, one factory and free senior high school.