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Asutifi North District Assembly holds Town Hall meeting

The Asutifi North District Assembly has held a Town Hall meeting to help deliberate on issues and explain the purpose of the 17th December national referendum.

Date Created : 11/18/2019 7:45:22 AM : Story Author : Mavis Ofosuah Asante/Ghanadistricts.com

Rev. Robert Collins Annam District Director for NCCE explained that, the spine of the referendum is to decide whether article 55(3) of the 1992 constitution of Ghana should be amended to allow the active participation of political parties in District Level through the sponsorship of candidates and not article 243(1) that some electorates have been made to believe.

Article 243(1) of the constitution states that: "There shall be MMDCEs who shall be appointed by the President with the prior approval of not less than two-thirds majority of Assembly Members present and voting at the meeting."

"The Article 243(1) is not entrenchedclause hence being worked on by Parliament but we as the people of Ghana are being called upon to vote on Article 55(3) because it is an entrenched clause", he said.

Rev. added that, the choice of a YES or a NO on December 17 2019 is a decision on whether political parties should sponsor candidate, use existing Political Party symbols and canvas votes on the District Level Elections (DLEs).

Hon. Anthony Mensah, District Chief Executive of the District Assembly however asserted that it remains true that even though political parties are barred from participating in the district level elections, their presence and activeness are seriously felt in various ways during the election of DLEs .

"Let's not pretend. The reality at the local government is such that, party politics is heavily involved. Anyone who doesn't know this is probably just not interested in knowing", he added.

MrImorro Ayibani Tebra, Bono Regional Information Officer further gave instances where party politics is practiced glaringly at the Local government levels.

He therefore called on the district to do the needful by voting Yes so political parties would be allowed to sponsor candidate for DLEs. He also gave reasons by voting YES.

Some members of the public however decried that the low education, misinformation, and regular low turnouts for Assembly level elections may affect the referendum if education is not intensified.

For the adoption of the new proposal, at least 40% of registered Ghanaian voters must turnout to vote during the referendum, out of which 75% or more must vote YES.