The National House of Chiefs has urged Ghanaians to vote ‘No’ in the upcoming December 17 referendum to amend article 55 (3) to enable political parties take part in the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).
According to the chiefs, all the partisanship that resulted from the presidential appointment of the chief executives would be worsened with the amendment of Article 55(3).
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In a statement signed by its President, Togbe Afede XIV, the House called on all Ghanaians to reject the proposal because it will destroy the local government system.
“The efficacy and utility of introducing partisan politics into the local government is questionable. The development implications of such reforms are by no means self-evident”, the National House of Chiefs said in a statement.
It added “The framers of the 1992 Constitution had good reasons for protecting our local government system from partisan politics, and the rationale for the new reforms has not sufficiently addressed the grounds for the exclusion”.
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To the house, based on the recommendation of its Legal Committee, they strongly object to the proposal that membership of local assemblies should exclusively comprise representatives of political parties as in the case of Parliament.
They are, therefore, advocating the outright rejection of the proposal to amend Article 55(3) of the Constitution”.
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