The Advocacy Document “The Case for Multi-party Local Governance in Ghana,” has been designed to give Ghanaians from all walks of life, the opportunity to participate in an informed discussion on issues pertaining to the constitutional reforms the amendment of Article 55 (3) and the Referendum and the role in ensuring a fruitful outcome. 

In a statement signed by Mr Kwesi Jonah, a Fellow of IDEG and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday referred to portions of President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s State of the Nation Address to Parliament on February 8, 2018 that talked about the election of MMDCEs.

President Akufo-Addo was quoted to have called for an amendment through a referendum of Article 55 of the constitution to enable political parties to participate in the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).

According to the IDEG statement, the launch of the Advocacy Document formed part of major activities lined up to mobilise the leadership and members of civil society organisations and media to effectively participate in the implementation of the President’s strategic leadership decision.

The Multi-party Local Governance reforms, especially the election of MMDCEs would strengthen accountable and inclusive local governance, improve public service delivery, tackle poverty and inequality vigorously in the local communities and strengthen gender equality, the statement said.

“For IDEG, it is crucial to raise public awareness of the most important decision to reform the local governance architecture of the Fourth Republic and to effectively mobilise citizens to support the decision to devolve more power and resources to advance good local self-governance across the districts of the country,” IDEG stated.

Participants at the launch will include; leaders of religious organisations, Public Servants, Civil Society, Political Parties, Private Sector actors, the media, among others.