Dr Nana Ato Arthur, the Head of the Local Government Service (LGS), has called for the establishment of a permanent date for the conduct of District Level Elections (DLE).
Nana Arthur, an expert in local governance, proposed July 7 as the date for the election of Assembly Officers and Unit Committee Members, adding that the election should be held in the mid-term of the Government.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday, he explained that the absence of a fixed date for district level elections was partly to blame for the low interest in that election, saying that the situation made it difficult for people to plan and mobilise resources ahead of time.
Nana Arthur said the organisation of the local level elections in the mid-term of the Government would also help to measure the performance of the Government within that period provided the elections were held on political party basis.
“I think we should go to Parliament to have a fixed date for the DLE like the way we have fixed date for general election. I will suggest 7th July in the mid-term of the Government. For instance, 7th July 2026 we have DLE because two years after 2024, it will be 2026.
“The mid-term is what we will use to measure what the national government will be doing; so let’s say we are going to have elections in 2024, the assembly elections should be held mid-term of the four-year tenure of national government,” Nana Arthur said.
The Electoral Commission has scheduled Tuesday, December 19, 2023, for the local government elections in 6,272 electoral areas in all the districts across the country.
The elections will elect assembly members and unit committee members for the next four years.
Nana Arthur said since 1988 the average turn-out for district level elections was below 40 per cent, a situation he said was discouraging.
He blamed the situation on the non-participation of political parties to mobilise and whip up interest in the elections, absence of a fixed date for the elections, and the low publicity for the elections as major reasons for the low turnout.
On the issue of political party participation, Nana Arthur called for a revisit to the failed referendum that sought to amend portions of the Constitution to allow political parties to participate in local level elections.
He said the participation of political parties would generate interest in the election at the local level and encourage positive competition.
Article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution, which is an entrenched clause, prohibits the inclusion of party politics in local governance.
A planned referendum to amend that portion of the Constitution was aborted in 2019 due to the lack of consensus among key stakeholders on the involvement of political parties in elections at the local level.
Nana Arthur said Assembly members played significant roles especially in rural areas and advocated the payment of stipends to facilitate their work and motivate them to do more.
He rallied the public to take the upcoming elections seriously and participate in it to help build effective local government architecture.
“The national effects are the sum of the local effects. If you build the local democracy very well, it reflects at the national level.
“If you have very good district assemblies with competent assembly members, that should be the best in our democratic dispensation,” Nana Arthur said.
GNA
