The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has indicated that the low voter turnout that characterized the district-level elections today, December 19 2023 is mainly due to inadequate publicity leading to the conduct of the election.
The Programmes Manager in charge of Local and Urban Governance at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, Mr. Paul Aborampah Mensah argued that both the media and civil society organisations failed to embark on sensitization awareness campaigns about the district level elections unlike what they do during presidential and parliamentary election in the country.
According to Mr Aborampah, unlike the huge attention and attendant national coverage that the presidential and parliamentary receive in the country, publicity on the District Level Election only began three weeks after the Electoral Commission (EC) initiated its promotion.
“The publicity, to me is not enough. I don’t blame the Electoral Commission either because we are part of the problem for District Level Election. If it were to be a national election, Joy FM would establish the Election Headquarters, etc. to start a countdown from a year ahead of the election. In the national election, political parties play a part. A day before the national election, you go to the Circle Terminal – you see all buses are full because some political parties facilitate the movement of their supporters to go to their electoral areas and vote. We don’t see the same in the District Level Election”.
Paul Aborampah Mensah
The Programmes Manager in charge of Local and Urban Governance at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development further argued that there are so many deficits in the conduct, management and facilitation of District Level Election that require more sustained and intensified publicity to avoid the continuous low voter turnout which has characterized it over the past three elections.
NCCE Chairperson Attributes Low Voter Turn Out In District Election To The Non-Election Of MMDCEs
However, the Chairperson of the National Commission on Civic Education, Kathleen Addy has attributed the low voter turnout in the district-level election to the non-election of the various Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives in the country.
Madam Kathleen Addy posited that unlike the Members of Parliament who are elected, and in that sense there is a level of accountability in the discharge of their responsibilities, the same cannot be said about the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives in the country as they are appointed by the President, making them accountable to the President and not the local people.
According to her, the situation has created a huge vacuum between the local people and the local government system which has resulted in the low participation of voters in the district level elections.
“Everybody needs a pep talk and some encouragement and some pampering to go and vote at the local election…First of all, people don’t understand the local government system, and then secondly, the local government system does not deliver. People do not understand that your assembly holds your share of the public purse. Your slice of the national cake is in the assembly.
“But I think that because people do not elect the heads of the assembly, they don’t feel a link. So you can see that people hold the MPs accountable, and they put pressure on them to deliver something for them. So if the MMDCEs were to be elected, there would be a stronger link, there would be stronger accountability, and then that would motivate people to vote.
Kathleen Addy
Nonetheless, Madam Kathleen Addy recounted the indispensable role that the assembly members and the unit committee members play in mobilizing public support towards addressing the needs of the local people.
She thus emphasized that even though the local governance system is not perfect, there is a need for people to be educated and encouraged to vote in the district-level elections, explaining that people have a share of the ‘national cake’ through the local assemblies.
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