Time to elect Presiding Members - Governance Expert

A Local Governance Expert, George Kyei Baffour says it is about time the country elected its Assembly Members on partisan basis.  He called for a second look of non-partisan system of decentralisation and scrap off the 30 percent appointing system by Presidents. He added that election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives [MMDCEs] will ensure accountability.

Speaking on Radio Ghana, Mr. Kyei Baffour said the ruling National Democratic Congress and opposition New Patriotic Party which are the main political parties in Ghana should reach agreement to restore normalcy.
“To look at the under pinning in the contest of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly [KMA] issue is purely partisan politics and if they’re not able to deal with issue from that perspective, I believe it will linger on for a longer period especially when the Assembly is yet to approve a potential nominee by the president for Metropolitan Chief Executive.”

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) which happens to the second largest Metropolitan Assembly, yesterday were left without a Presiding Member after eighth elections. The unopposed candidate for the Presiding Member position, Mr. Senya, was not elected by members of the Assembly.
At the end of the election 65 assembly members voted NO against Nana Kofi Senya, whilst 62 people voted YES, which does not represent at least two-third majority.

Refuting the claims by some people for a Presiding Member to elected by simple majority, Mr. Kyei Baffour stated categorically that “it is not possible under the circumstances because the election of a presiding member is prescribed by the constitution, [of Ghana 1992] is not even in an ordinary legislation, if you look at article 244 clause 2, the constitution clearly states that “the presiding member shall be elected by at least two-thirds majority of all the member of the assembly”, so it will be unconstitutional for anybody or group of persons to modify the constitutional provision to suite the person or circumstance that prevail  that is not possible so they have to resort to the law to continue to vote until a substantive presiding member is elected”
He added that “as a political watcher, I observed that KMA is partisanly divided between the NDC and NPP.”

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