Josephine Nkrumah
Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Josephine Nkrumah, has raised concerns over the peddling of erroneous information suggesting that the December 17 referendum is to pave way for the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs).
Such misinformation often peddled by high-profile state actors and media reportage, she said, hampers the work of the commission whose mandate is to properly educate citizens on civic issues.
“Come December 17, when people go to the polls and they don’t see the question quoted as, ‘would you like to elect your MMDCE?’. It can confuse them,” she said.
Ms. Nkrumah, who was speaking in an interview with DAILY GUIDE on Tuesday, explained that issues relating to the election of MMDCEs are within the purview of Parliament to amend Article 243(1) which has vested the power of electing MMDCEs into the hands of the president.
The national referendum, she disclosed, is required as stipulated in Article 55(3) of the Constitution in order to decide whether district level elections (DLE) would be carried out along partisan lines.
“Even if we don’t agree to multi-party elections at the district assembly level through the referendum, we will still elect our unit committee, assembly members and MMDCE on a non-partisan basis,” she stressed.
She was optimistic that current reforms would go a long way to address voter apathy in district level elections, which is known to be the least patronised elections in the country over the years due to “Ghanaians linking the superintendence of assemblies to the appointed chief executives.”
“For a long time, Ghanaians have let the running of the assemblies through unit committee and assembly members be of no consequence,” she said.
She also assured that the NCCE would stay true to its mandate of educating citizens while maintaining a position of independence and neutrality to all parties involved in the reform process.
“Our 1,450 staff are all part of this engagement at the district levels led by the district directors across the country on various platforms to help get the 40 per cent voter turnout,” she said.
Ms. Nkrumah also called for the integration of affirmative action into ongoing decentralisation reforms to promote inclusiveness of more women who make up over 50 per cent of the population into the local governance structure.
By Issah Mohammed