Madam Rita Odoley Sowah, La Dade Kotopon Municipal Chief Executive, has urged the electorates to vote for committed candidates in the March 3 district level elections for effective local governance at the grassroots.
She said the district elections were means of decentralising power to the people in decision-making and asked the citizenry to actively participate, for them to achieve their aspirations of development for their areas.
Madam Sowah gave the advice at a day’s community forum organised under the auspices of the European Union (EU) and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) at the forecourt of the Bethel Presbyterian Church at La, in Accra.
The programme on the theme: “Participatory Democracy through district level election” was to sensitise the people on the need to fully partake in the assembly elections.
Madam Sowah advised voters to critically assess the contestants and vote for those who could influence decision-making to bring about development at the local level to impact positively on their communities.
She said participatory democracy was a means of dialogue and charged the aspiring assembly and unit committee members to constantly interact with the people when they got the nod.
“This will enable you to identify the needs of the people and their challenges and collectively solve them,” she advised
Mrs Gloria A. Kudo, the Municipal Director of the NCCE, said the NCCE started whipping up voters’ participation in the district elections since last year so as to meet the 50 per cent voter turnout target.
She said for the local governance system to thrive for development there was the need for peaceful co-existence, engagement of women and the marginalised in decision-making.
At an open forum, it came to light that some assembly members did not perform to expectation and they sometimes looked down on people, after they had been voted into power, and that had apparently caused people’s interest in the district level elections to wane.
Nii Yemoh Din II, La Akwashongtse and the chairman of the occasion, appealed to the aspirants to show high level of decency in their campaigns, saying: “Election is not a war but a contest of ideas and persuasion.”
Nii (Dr) Kpobi Tettey Tsuru III, La Mantse, Chief Inspector Appeadu Manu of La District Police, among other personalities who graced the occasion.
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