By: Edzorna Francis Mensah
Daniel Kweku Botwe, the Minister responsible for Local Government and Rural Development has bemoaned the fact that, the voter turnouts during district level elections over the years have been low compared to the General Election to elect the President and the Members of Parliament. According to him, “records from the Electoral Commission (EC) clearly demonstrate that the voter turnouts during district level elections leave much to be desired.
Briefing MPs on the upcoming district election slated for 19th of December, 2023, for all registered to go to the polls to elect their representatives to the District Assemblies and Unit Committees, the Minister submitted that in 1988, when Ghana started the District Level Elections, the voter turnout was 59.3% which he said, was fairly impressive but since then, voter participation has reduced substantially and “in 1994, voter turnout was 29.3%; 1998, was 41.6%; 2002, was 33.1%, 2006, was 39.3%; 2010, was 35.3%; 2015 was 35.9% and finally, in the last district level election held in 2019, the voter turnout was 33.6%”.
The conduct of District Level Elections (DLEs) is precisely, Section 6 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) which stipulate that “Elections to the District Assemblies shall be held once in every four (4) years and at least six (6) months apart of the Parliamentary elections” is to fulfil some of these important constitutional requirements of the growing democracy and to ensure that people are given the opportunity to elect their representatives to the District Assemblies which in any case are also the highest political authorities and the pillars around which local decision making and development evolve.
Mr. Botwe stressed the fact “the rights of the people to participate in the decision-making processes at every level of their governance and development solidifies democracy”. And that is why “participation in district level elections is important and key to the sustainability of our democracy”.
The Minister also mentioned that, the Local Government system is the foundation for building and sustaining effective and accountable democracy as he told MPs that, local areas are places where residents interact with one another, collectively identify their problems, and through their leadership and organizations such as the District Assemblies mobilise resources from the state and non-state institutions to solve their common problems, and democratically hold those leaders accountable for the outcome of their development process.
In essence of Article 240 (2) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, which enjoins the state to ensure that people in particular Local Government areas are given the opportunity to participate effectively in their governance system. Also, under the implementation of the Directive Principles of State Policy (and towards achieving the political objectives of the State), Article 35(6)(d) again enjoins the political actors to make democracy a reality by decentralizing the administrative and Page 2 of 9 financial machinery of government to the regions and districts and by affording all possible opportunities to the people to participate in decision-making at every level in national life and in government.
