Vest power of establishing new district in EC — Ahwoi

A Decentralisation Expert, Mr Kwamina Ahwoi has supported the call for vesting the power of establishing a new district in the Electoral Commission (EC) with authorisation from the Parliament.
He said leaving the decision in the hands of a President had in some cases resulted in the creation of a district that did not meet the qualification criteria, thereby resulting in the establishment of districts that were fraught with financial and developmental challenges.
Mr Ahwoi who is the longest serving Minister of Local Government and Rural Development was briefing a seven-member delegation from the Malawian Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) who are in the country to learn at first hand Ghana’s electoral success story, especially at the local level.
The delegation was in the country at the invitation of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a public policy institute.
According to Mr Ahwoi, most of the 60 new districts that were created recently did not meet the basic qualification which included economic viability and population size, adding that “technically most of these district must be collapsed but it would be politically suicidal for any government to attempt to do that”.
He explained that because the new districts did not meet economic viability criteria, they were not able to meet the basic requirement of building their offices and had to fall on the Central Government for such support.
He added that if power was vested in the EC, because it had the expertise to undertake such demarcation it would take into considerations all the necessary demands of the law, while Parliament which represented Ghanaians would also make greater input.
In 2003 and 2007, 60 additional districts were created, of the three new metropolises that were created, Cape Coast and Tema did not meet the minimum population criterion of 250,000.
The 36 new municipalities that were created, none met Act 462’s criterion which is “ that the geographical area consist of a single compact settlement” and of the 31 districts that were created, very few met Act 462’s requirement of “economic viability”.
Mr Ahwoi added that apart from not meeting internal standards, the proliferation of district always posed a danger to local government and decentralisation as they tended to strengthen the Central Government’s stronghold over the districts.
He also told the Malawian delegation that Ghana’s current local government system was an amalgamation of its past experiences, ethnic groups, chieftaincy system, socio-political needs and parts of the systems of other countries around the world.
He mentioned that the 30 per cent members of the assembly that were appointed were meant to cater for other groups, especially chiefs, specialists and women who would normally either not participate in elections or would participate but not win elections.
Mr Ahwoi advised the Malawian to carve out a local government system that would suit them and advance their development.
The Leader of the delegation, Dr Chris Daza who is the General Secretary of the Malawian Congress Party (MCP), said Malawi had not been able to organise a local level elections for a long time and that it was to develop a new and effective local government system that was why they had come to Ghana.