A group of 21 Civil Society Organizations working to promote good governance in the Northern Region has expressed disquiet about the postponement of the 2010 District Assembly and Unit Committee elections to December 28.
The Civil Society Organizations Forum as they call themselves asserted that the postponement would create uncertainty and lose sleep among the aspirants since most of them had already invested resources in their campaigns towards October 23 which was fixed earlier.
Addressing the media in Tamale, Alhassan Mohammed Awal, Facilitator of the Forum wondered if the Electoral Commission (EC) and for that matter government, attached importance to the forthcoming District Assembly and Unit Committee elections.
He implored government to place premium on the exercise since it was equally important as the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Ghana.
Mr. Awal who is the Executive Director for Northern Sector Action on Awareness Centre (NORSAAC) catalogued some of the frustrations the Aspirants were likely to encounter as a result of the postponement, citing a power vacuum in all the 170 MMDAs which would definitely affect the activities of the Assemblies and deny the people the opportunity to demand accountability within the period.
Citizens’ interest in the District Assembly elections was likely to experience serious setback which can affect operationalization of the decentralization concept.
Few people managing resources of the Assembly within the power vacuum period were likely to engage in projects that would not reflect the needs of the people and further defeat the objective of the decentralization concept.
In view of the above challenges resulting from the postponement, the CSOs Forum in the Northern Region asked the EC and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to ensure that the 28th December, 2010 date fixed for the election does not change no matter the circumstance.
Government should ensure availability of the needed resources to the EC and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to create awareness on the new date and also encourage citizens to participate actively in the process, they demanded.
They also asked that the President exercised his executive powers during the period of the power vacuum to ensure that activities of the MMDAs were not interrupted. Adding that, the decision to allow the MMDCEs to totally handle the affairs of the Assemblies for the period should ensure accountability to the people.
The CSOs Forum further stated that Parliament and other stakeholders whose duty it was to expedite action on resolving the legal aspect of the new proposal should immediately take action to bring to rest the current legal debate.
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