Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Osei Bonsu Amoah has bemoaned the laissez-faire attitude of political parties towards campaigning to create awareness and build euphoria in the run up to December 17 referendum.
Despite parties openly declaring their support for the national referendum to decide whether District Level Elections would be held along partisan lines, not much effort he said had been seen on their part, in terms of using party structures and campaign machinery to sensitise and rally citizens.
The situation he admitted had negatively affected the ongoing campaign to get large turnout of voter population who should be in excess of 40 per cent for the referendum to hold true.
The deputy minister made the remarks in Accra on Wednesday, November 8, 2019, at an Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) roundtable on “Multi-Party Decentralised Local Governance System in Ghana: What would it look like?”
Mr Amoah also mentioned the uncertainty in activities and timeline of the Electoral Commission as hindrance to the campaign effort.
In the meantime, he encouraged interest groups to form coalitions to champion the agenda as the ministry had months earlier also provided funding to the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and Information Service Department (ISD) to start their campaign.
The Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies, Dr Nicholas Awotwi, suggested a strong collation of stakeholders such as association of mayors and local government platforms, to push for “a bubble up approach” to ensure strong local government systems.
