The Central Regional National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has urged assembly members to device innovative ways to regularly meet with their electoral area members.
The Commission has advised that assembly members should apply the same zeal with which they campaigned for votes to their duty to meet constituents before and after assembly sittings.
It notes regular and informed meetings between constituents and their assembly members is vital for electoral area members in various assemblies to effectively assess the performance the assembly.
Speaking to journalists at Cape Coast today during a media launch of a STAR Ghana-Coastal TV campaign dubbed ‘Frontomfrom’ (Connecting to the Assembly), the Deputy Regional Director of the Commission, Alhaji Abdul Mohammed, said such meetings are backed by provisions in the Local Government Act.
The Fontomfrom campaign aims at bringing the constituents closer to assembly members and to the workings of the assembly in general in order to make people have in-depth understanding of their roles in the local government system.
Five assemblies in the Central Region – the Cape Coast Metropolis, the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem and Mfantseman Municipalities and the Abura-Asebu Kwamankese and the Twifo-Hemang Lower Dankyira Districts – have been selected to kick start the campaign.
Alhaji Mohammed advised, “As an assembly man, you go to the meetings on behalf of the people, so after the meeting, it is just ok to come back to the people and tell them when I attended the meeting on your behalf, this is what happened and the people will also tell you their views: this is what the law stipulates”.
On assembly members’ complaint that they do not have the time to meet their people, the Deputy NCCE Director indicated, “If it was possible for you reach the people during campaigning, why is it difficult for you to meet them now? We have community occasions, weddings and others, and these are places people gather, and you can meet them”.
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By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana