Mrs. Margaret Abrafi Appiah, the Sunyani West District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) who gave the advice said District Assemblies required development-oriented people to represent their constituents.

She said many local communities were under-developed because their Assembly Members (AMs) were not able to push for their pressing development needs to be captured in the development plans of the Assemblies.

Mrs. Appiah was addressing separate town hall meetings organised by the Sunyani West District Assembly held at Fiapre and Nsoatre to sensitise the people on the upcoming DLEs and the Referendum.

The Electoral Commission would be organizing District Level Elections and Referendum to amend article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution and is scheduled to start at 0700 hours and close at 1700 hours on Tuesday, December 17 this year.

Mrs. Appiah explained the work of Assembly members were voluntary, hence the need for the electorate to consider voting for competent people who are nationalistic and committed to champion their cause.

She advised the electorate to check track records of the various candidates before giving them nod to lead the constituents at the Assembly.

Mrs. Appiah regretted that communal labour spirit among Ghanaians had diminished and was therefore affecting the development of rural communities.

Mr. Martin Obeng, the Sunyani West District Chief Executive advised the electorate to vote "yes" in the referendum.

The referendum is in fulfillment of the 1992 Constitutional requirement for the electorate to approve or reject a question, if Article 55(3) should be amended to introduce multi-partisan system into local level elections.

Mr. Obeng reminded Ghanaians the referendum was not an election of MMDCEs, and appealed to the electorate to participate fully to amend Article 55(3) which is an entrenched clause of the 1992 Constitution.