By: Yvonne Atilego.
The much-anticipated nominees for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, MMDCEs list is out.
The list of 260 nominees for the entire Country has been uploaded on the Local Government Ministry’s website and the Facebook page of the Ministry of Information for reference.
Notable names that have been excluded from the list, include the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Chief Executive Mohammed Adjei Sowah, who has been replaced with the Former Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Elizabeth Sackey.
Sam Pyne takes over from Osei Assibey Antwi for Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly while Sule Salifu assumes the mantle from the departing Musah Superior for the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly.
The Tema Metropolitan Assembly Would be run by Yohannes Armah Ashitey, who takes over from Felix Nii Annang La.
The President meanwhile has been criticised for the delay in appointing new MMDCEs, some 9 months into his second term with some saying that the delay is impeding development at the local level.
Speaking at a Media briefing in Accra, the Minister of Local Government Decentralization and Rural Development, Dan Botwe said the list of 260 nominees is the only list from the President and had been submitted to the Regional Ministers and Electoral Commission for further action.
“The Regional Ministers and the Electoral Commission are supposed to act on the list from tomorrow,’’ he said.
Mr. Botwe gave further directives for the nominees and asked that the public be law-abiding and eschew violence, given the agitations that have occurred over some MMDCE nominations.
38 women MMDCEs nominated out of 260
Meanwhile, out of 260 nominees, only 38 are women. This represents about 14.6% of the total number of nominees. Mr. Dan Botwe said he could not provide analysis on the number of women until the President issued appointment letters to the nominees after they had been confirmed by the various Assemblies.
The MMDCE nominees would require a 2/3rd majority of Assembly members’ votes in order to pass the test to be finally appointed into the position.
Mr. Botwe again refuted allegations that delays in announcing the list for MMDCEs impeded development. According to him, the delay never for once affected development at the Assembly level because the various committees were still working.
‘’There has not been any vacuum in the Assemblies, no there so many Committees, etc, the DCE is only one-person, other sections of the Assembly are required to work’’, Mr. Botwe stated.
He also refuted allegations that the delay in releasing the list, affected the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund.
NALAG congratulates MMDCE Nominees.
In response to the MMDCE nominations, the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), has congratulated all MMDCE nominees announced by the Local Government Minister on September 19, 2021today, saying their nomination is a test the President has reposed in them having gone through a rigorous vetting process. A statement issued in Accra expressed confidence that the nominees would perform creditably to uplift the Assemblies to the next level and equally play a constructive role in NALAG when they are finally confirmed.
The statement asked Assembly Members to avoid delays in the process of approving the nominees in order not to create any unnecessary vacuum in the running of the Assemblies. It asked all Assembly members with the power to approve the nominees to put aside their parochial interest and any acrimony against the nominees and make national interest the focus.