Too Many Assembly Members

...Gov't, EC urged to cut number

The Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan chief executive, Mr. Philip Kwesi Nkrumah, has suggested to the government and the Electoral Commission (EC) to merge some of the electoral areas in order to cut down the large number of elected assemblymembers to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.

According to him, the work of assemblymembers has now gone beyond that of sacrifice and therefore there is the need for them to be paid as full time workers.

He explained that this would attract those who have expertise to contest and go to the assembly to give of their best. He noted that if the EC and the government should heed to his suggestion, the latter might be in position to pay them but it would be the other way round if the number is not cut.

Mr. Nkrumah was speaking at a public forum on legal and institutional framework for the district assembly and unit committee elections, which took place in Takoradi on Wednesday, this week.

The forum was organised by the Electoral Commission, in conjunction with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, with the support of USAID and KAB Governance Consult.

It was meant to collate ideas for possible legislation reforms that will make the district and unit committee elections more attractive and competitive and also help to make the decentralization more responsive to the aspirations of the people.

Continuing, Mr. Nkrumah, 37, and a lawyer by profession, said the Shama Ahanta East metropolis, for example, has a population of 400,000 people with 82 assemblymembers, including government appointees, representing the various electoral areas in the assembly.

He said looking at the electoral areas some of them could easily be merged to form one electoral area with one representative at the assembly.

According to him, if this were done it would be easy for the government to pay them for them to give of their best, instead of the present system where a lot of people are elected to the assembly, who do not give of their best due to the lack of adequate motivation.

The deputy chairman of the EC in charge of operations, Mr. Sarfo Kantanka, who set the agenda for the discussion, said the organisation of district and unit committee elections costs much more than that of the presidential and parliamentary, because in the former the people are not allowed to contest on the ticket of any political party.

Besides almost all their logistics are borne by the EC, he added. He regretted that despite the huge amount they have been spending on these elections the voter turnout has always been low and they do not know what has been causing that.

Sarfo Kanatanka said though some people have attributed this low turnout to the non-involvement of the political parties, there is nothing the EC could do to make the elections partisan because their duty is to implement laws put in place by the relevant agencies for the conduct of the district level elections.

He was hopeful that the suggestions Ghanaians would bring out would enable the EC and government to effect the necessary changes the electorate themselves want in order to improve upon the patronage.

The forum, which was attended by almost all stakeholders, suggested that the status quo of the district assembly election should be maintained.

A few others however, suggested that the political parties must be involved since the district assembly is a platform where future leaders of the country could be nurtured.

The forum, which was attended by the deputy Regional Minister, Ms. Sophia Horner-Sam, was chaired by Nana Kobina Nketia VI, the Omanhene of Essikado traditional area and lecturer in African history at the University of Cape Coast.