By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Nov. 7, GNA - The election of
metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) will aid the Anti-Vigilantism Law, Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, Executive Director, Institute
for Democratic Governance (IDEG), has said.
He noted that because of the
winner-takes-all system, vigilantism law would deal with offences and recurring
threats of violence in Ghana’s elections.
He said it was linked to the fact that there
was only one post in the executive arm of government that political parties
contested, hence the election of MMDCEs would not only reduce the pressure on
the President, but also reduce vigilantism.
“The violence in our election will be curbed
because there will be more positions, and there will be greater accountability;
competition will shift from just elections, to delivering development."
Dr Akwetey said this in his remarks at a
roundtable discussion held on the theme “Multi-Party Decentralised Local
Governance System in Ghana: What Would It Look Like?”
For over three decades, the country
practised decentralised local governance, which is aimed at the doorsteps of
Ghanaians.
Even though there was progress in the
practice of decentralised local governance over the past three decades, there
were several shortfalls that undermined the progress made so far.
For instance, article 55(3) of the 1992
Constitution of Ghana barred the participation of political parties, weakened
accountability of the appointed MMDCEs to the people and excluded; minority
political parties, women, the youth, Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) and
chiefs.
The roundtable, discussion, organised by
IDEG, was therefore, aimed at examining how the reformed decentralised local
governance system will operate in the areas of political, administrative,
fiscal and economic decentralisation.
Dr Akwetey stated that with regards to the
upcoming national referendum on the amendment of article 55(3), the two major
political parties in the country were in support of it, however part of the
case all stakeholders must present was that there would be reforms after the
7th December referendum.
“There are going to be reforms and part of
it is that we are going to see 260 new positions in the executive arm of
government”, he added.
Dr Augustina Akonor, Senior Lecturer, School
of Public Service and Governance (SPSG), Ghana Institute of Management and
Public Administration (GIMPA), in her presentation noted that the current mode
of appointment of MMDCEs could not be characterised as entailing downwardly
with accountable representative actors with significant domains of
discretionary power.
She recommended that, though the road
towards the implementation of multi-party decentralised local government system
might be rough initially, all stakeholders should be ready as a people to
quickly correct the wrongs.
Dr Akonor added that the smooth
implementation of this system depended on how strong institutions established
to regulate local authorities and public offices creditably perform their
supervisory functions.
Dr Nicholas Awotwi, Director of the
Institute of Local Government Studies, noted that among what needs to be done
after a ‘Yes’ vote; was the need for a strong coalition to push for a bubble up
reforms; and involvement of political parties and influence in the operations
of Local Government (LG).
He said some LG laws needed amendment,
saying, “currently LG Act 936 (2016): 37 (1&2) the president can use
executive instrument to dissolve a LG and appoint a commission to manage it for
one year.
Dr Awotwi said that with regards to Article
202 (a) of the LG Act 936 the ‘Regional Minister is responsible for supervising
the work of the DCEs in the region, and therefore asked “an unelected
politician to supervise an elected politician?”.
GNA