Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has made a shocking U-turn on the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs), saying it is no longer interested in their election.
The party is now asking the public to vote against the proposed amendment of Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution which will make the position of MMDCEs electable and local government elections partisan.
At a press conference yesterday, NDC National Chairman Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo said the local government system should remain non-partisan and that individuals should contest the District Assembly and Unit Committee elections on their own merit.
“We in the NDC want you to vote NO to stop the plan to introduce multi-party participation in the Local Government System in Ghana. We, therefore, decided to campaign for a NO vote at the referendum and to urge all Ghanaians to vote NO at the referendum.
“The consequence of exporting this polarization into the District Assemblies is that very soon in our villages, there will be ‘NDC Communal Labour Day’ and ‘NPP Communal Labour Day’. There will also be ‘NDC market’ and ‘NPP market’ and so on and so forth,” Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo stated.
He claimed without any proof that the NPP government “has deliberately been misleading people into believing that the referendum is on the election of MMDCEs.”
Confused NDC
On one breadth, the NDC said the National Executive Committee of the party had affirmed the long held position of the party that MMDCEs should be elected but yesterday turned around to say, “We, however, urge all Ghanaians to vote NO at the referendum because we strongly believe elections at the district and unit committee levels must remain non-partisan.”
“The needless NDC-NPP polarization at the national level should not be extended into the District Assemblies and Unit Committees, which is what will happen if we vote YES to make the local government system partisan,” the NDC chairman said, adding “our support for the election of MMDCEs has changed.”
“If the government insists on making the assemblies partisan, then a new bill must be drafted, re-gazetted and subjected to serious scrutiny by Ghanaians, unlike the surreptitious manner it has gone about the current Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018.”
By Nana Kwasi