Despite its importance to national development, it said, the lack of interest by the Executive, Parliament, media, civil society organisations and traditional leaders, was worrying.

It, therefore, called for concerted effort from all stakeholders to whip up interest in this year’s election and beyond.

The Programmes Manager of CDD-Ghana, Paul Kwabena  Aborampah Mensah, made the call at a national dialogue on the 2023 DLE in Kumasi.

He noted that local governance remained the most potent way to bring development to the citizenry, hence reducing apathy must be a priority.

The DLE is to elect assembly and Unit Committee members.

Forum

The dialogue was organised by the Local Governance Network (LOGNet), Public Financial Management Network (PFM-Network) and the Chamber of Local Governance (CHaloG), with support from the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).

It was to provide a platform to educate, sensitise and raise awareness among citizens, non-state actors and state actors on the 2023 DLE.

Participants from the Ashanti, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo and Western North regions attended the event which was on the theme "Strategies to Improve Participation towards the District Level Elections in Ghana.

Interest

Mr Mensah entreated traditional leaders to take a keen interest in the DLE as custodians of lands on which development projects were executed, reminding them of their crucial roles in local governance.

"Chiefs have been part of the local governance process since the era of the colonial masters who implemented their policies through traditional leaders.

So, they must be concerned," he said.

The Regional Coordinator of GIZ, Simon Manu, pledged the support of GIZ to help raise awareness about the DLE because it believed in strengthening local structures as the fulcrum of development.

“Development in Ghana hinged on the local governance system. . .

If local governance fails, development in Ghana will fail,” he said.

Turnout

The National Coordinator of LOGNet, Christopher Dapaah, said turnouts in DLE in the country continued to decline from 59.3 per cent in 1988/89 to 33.6 per cent in 2019, as against an average of 78.8 per cent in the Parliamentary and Presidential elections since 1992.

"It is clear from data that there is a huge gap in participation when comparing district-level elections to national elections," he observed.

He said even though Ghana was a solid democratic nation, the narration would have been different if the nation's democracy were to be rated based on participation in DLEs.

The Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Benjamin Bannor Bio, took participants through processes and strategies towards the election.