Editorial 22/09/2021
The Minister of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development (LGDRD), Hon. Daniel Kwaku Botwe, has reiterated that universal adult suffrage to elect MMDCEs is the way to go in future. Answering a question from a Journalist, the minister alluded to the fact that the current president did his best to introduce elections into the local government system per his party’s manifesto and his conviction.
However after in-depth deliberations with political parties, opinion leaders, chiefs, and faith-based organizations the concept was botched by their political opponents.
This arose when the NPP wanted the concept to be made partisan whiles their opponents wanted it to be divorced from the area of politics. Mr Botwe expressed the regret of his party for the abortion of the concept saying there was nothing wrong in making it partisan since some countries have done a similar thing and are doing well.
The Daily Searchlight supports the idea that the next political step to bring government to the people, continue to be the initiative to make the position of district chief executive elective, whether or not it be on political lines.
We believe that that initiative would be very positive, since it would allow the people t decide for themselves the manner in which they should be governed, and the people to engage in the governance.
We also believe that giving political power to the people at the local level would invariably lead to greater economic transformation and political activism, which would lead to the proliferation of industries that so far cannot survive in the rural areas.
We believe that partisanship has come to stay in this country, and will only increase with the passage of the years.
That being so, the opposition to the phenomenon of partisan politics at the rural level is defeatist, and ought not to be countenanced.
We hope that when the concept is introduced again, it would receive a much more positive response.
