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The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken a stance to campaign for a ‘No’ Vote in the upcoming referendum on the 17th of December to amend Articles 55 (3) in government’s bid to pave the way for the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).
At a press conference today, Ghana’s main opposition stated the escalation of divisive politics at the national level as a supreme moral reason, but then backed it with constitutional arguments that paints Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo, as a very incompetent government lawyer.
“It is our well-considered view, and indeed that of well-meaning Ghanaians, that the needless NDC-NPP polarization at the national level should not be extended into the District Assemblies and Unit Committees, which is what will happen if we vote to make the local government system partisan.
“The consequence of exporting this polarization into the District Assemblies is that very soon in our villages, there will be “NDC Communal Labour day” and “NPP Communal Labour day”. There will also be “NDC market” and “NPP market” And so on and so forth. We of the NDC believe that all our towns and villages should have one communal Labour Day, and one market and we can only achieve this by voting NO.”
National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, who had read the statement clarified that the NDC was not against the election of MMDCEs but that such elections should not be partisan.
He said the party had affirmed this position after a meeting of its National Executive Committee last week Thursday.
The NDC, which accused the government of deliberately misleading the public into thinking that the 17th December referendum will be an election of MMDCEs, now shares position with likes of respected lawyer, Samson Lardy Anyenini and Local Governance expert, Mr. Amon Kotey.
After stating the supreme moral reason for its opposition of President Akufo-Addo’s attempt to fulfil an important campaign promise, the NDC then handed out unsolicited tutorials that showed that Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo, even fouled up in the process to set the stage for the referendum.
The 17th December referendum would seek to repeal Article 55(3) which states; “Subject to the provisions of this article, a political party is free to participate in shaping the political will of the people, to disseminate information or political ideas, social and economic programmes of a national character and sponsor candidates for elections to any public office other than to District Assemblies or other local government unit”.
The referendum has become necessary because Article 55 is an entrenched provision of the Constitution and therefore can only be amended through a referendum. But in the move to amend it, the NDC points out that Gloria Akuffo did not present a watertight bill. The bill on which the referendum is to be held which is titled the ‘Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2018;’ and signed by the Attorney-General, Ms. Gloria Afua Akuffo, on 26th September, 2018 before it was given Gazette notification on 12th November 2018