A Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG),Kwesi Jonah, has underscored broader national dialogue on the election of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCES) on political party bases.

He explained that the referendum to amend Article 55(3) suffered a setback because of lack of consensus from the political parties which was expected to take place in 2019.

Mr Jonah indicated that while the New Patriotic Party (NPP) wanted political party-sponsored candidates to contest the election of MMDCEs the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wanted the election to be held without partisan politics but the President pledged to revisit the referendum to amend Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution to pave way for their election.

“It is a good idea for the President to reintroduce the issue especially with a focus on election of MMDCEs on party lines, I personally supported the election on party basis because even though metropolitan, municipal and district elections are supposed to be conducted without politics, it is characterised by political activities.

“Amendment of Article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution will consolidate the country’s democratic credentials to experience something new and make amends if there are pitfalls because provision in the Constitution excludes election of MMDCEs due to transitioning from military regime to multi-party government.

“We have tried this system for almost 30 years and it is necessary to make a paradigm shift and try something new for our local system of governance even though some people argue, paving way for election of MMDCEs on political lines will monetise the system like presidential and parliamentary elections,” Mr Jonah said.

However, he called for a regulatory body to moderate behaviour of politicians as far as financing of election campaigns were concerned to bring sanity into the system and
was imperative for authorities to enforce laws on monetisation during political elections to serve as lessons to potential offenders.

Mr Jonah proposed public funding mechanism to strengthen activities of political parties before and during elections and expressed worry about political governance system, where more emphasis was focused on strategising to win elections than development.