District assembly amendments to ensure effectiveness

The changes being introduced into the district assembly elections would save the nation resources and ensure effectiveness in the administration of the district assembly system.
The amendment, which is currently before Parliament, is also aimed at whipping up public interest in the local elections.
A Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr Kwadwo Safo Kantanka, stated this during a media interaction between officials of the Greater Accra EC and some selected journalists in the region.
It was meant for them to come out with effective and efficient ways of publicising the date for district level elections, which is December 28, 2010 and the changes that would be effective after parliament has given a green light to the Legislative Instrument (LI) before it.
Explaining the savings that the nation would make on resources, Mr Kantanka said the number of unit committee had been reduced from 15,000 to 6,000 , bringing down the membership of the unit committee from the current 225,000 to 30,000.
He explained that hitherto, every electoral area had 15 unit committee members, consisting of 10 elected and five appointed members but with the LI, every electoral area would have only five members.
He said with only five persons to be elected in the electoral area, the unit committees were likely to become more competitive, unlike previously when the EC could not get the required number of candidates in quite a number of units.
Mr Kantanka hinted that the commission was discussing with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to explore the possibility of the ministry providing unit committee members with allowances and also increase that of the assembly members as a way of whipping up interest in the assembly system.
He added that the amendment would allow organisations, other than political parties, to donate to the EC to assist it in mounting more campaign platforms for aspirants.
Mr Kantanka added that aspirants could also mount their own platforms as many times as they could, unlike previously when they could not do so.
He said these amendments were also geared towards ensuring that the aspirants interacted more with the electorate as a way of increasing the interest of the electorate.
Mr Kantanka agreed to the Daily Graphic’s suggestion that allowing the candidates to mount their own platforms would offer people with more resources the opportunity to gain an upper hand over those with less.
He indicated that because this was a local election, the electorates were likely to vote for hardworking people and those with integrity than those who would be able mount the most expensive platforms.
He also explained that the EC would be willing to take assistance from other organisations to help it hold more platforms for the candidates, because previously it had not been able to generate enough resources to assist the candidates to send their messages to the electorate.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of EC, Mr Mohammed Addoquaye, urged the media to help in educating the electorate on the changes contained in the LI and also whip up their interest in the local election.