Let’s come clean on making District Assembly election partisan – Dan Botwe

The Minister for Local Government, Decentralization and  Rural Development Dan Botwe has called for a discourse on whether to make the District Level Election partisan or not in subsequent years.

According to Mr. Botwe, the nation cannot always pretend that the  District Level Election (DLE) is non-partisan as some political parties sponsor candidates vying for positions in various districts.

“You have a superstructure which is partisan and the base is not and for me, there is a disconnect because Article 55 makes it clear from the Constitution that Political Parties are not supposed to support, or back or sponsor candidates at the District Level Election (DLE).”

“If they do that they break the law so they don’t do that but we keep on hearing that there is a subtle way in which these things are done. So it brings back the argument that there are ways that it is done. So why don’t we come clean on that,” Mr. Botwe stated in an interview with Starr FM monitored by The Ghana Report.

“As a nation, we cannot teach our children that we are all breaking the law. Something that we should do and we are not being sincere about it. It doesn’t speak well of us. But we all know that it is an entrenched position that calls for a referendum to amend the Constitution. So maybe after tomorrow, we may have to see whether there is a consensus on this matter. Then we bring it back for serious discussion” he added.

The minister further called on all citizens to go out in their numbers to actively participate in the December 19 district-level election.

The Electoral Commission’s (EC) statistics show a total number of 66,257 candidates, comprising 18,755 assembly member candidates and 47,502 unit committee member candidates are expected to participate in the District Level Election (DLE) across 6,215 electoral areas and 216 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

According to Section 5(1)(b) of the Local Government Act, 1993 (Act 462), 6,215 of the assembly member candidates will be selected to serve the 216 MMDAs.

31,075 out of the 47,502 candidates will be elected as unit committee members. Each electoral area will then appoint five members as stipulated by the electoral process.