The President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has described as “backward” suggestions that electing District Chief Executives will encourage tribalism.
[contextly_sidebar id=”WYXRASyd7ikZcFgqL2I4S0Do7RlTT11Q”]According to him, such suggestions are undemocratic and ought not to be tolerated in this day and age of representative democracy.
His statement comes on the back of comments made by Local Governance expert, Professor Kwamena Ahwoi that were not in favour of electing Metropolitan/ Municipal and District Chief Executives at a forum organized by the NCCE which revealed that over 60% of Ghanaians wanted their DCEs elected according to a research they conducted.
Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, Franklin Cudjoe stated that elections at the district assembly level are fundamental to decentralization.
“I heard in the course of the week that some bastions of decentralization or apparently demi-gods of decentralisation are suggesting that if we allow elections to happen at the district assembly level there will be accentuated tribalism. There will be Chaos and I feel this is so backward. It is so not democratic. In fact it is an insult to democracy. We are having even unit elections but we do not want to elect the head of the district who will be working with the elected ones.” He said
Currently, the president nominates a candidate who would have to secure the approval of two thirds of assembly members to be confirmed.
There is however a huge clamor from various quarters for these MMDCEs to be elected to make them more responsive to the local people.
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Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana