Head of Communications and Corporate Affairs of the National Commission for Civic Education, NCCE, Joyce Afutu, has asked aspiring Assembly and Unit Committee Members to desist from promising capital projects ahead of this year’s District Level Elections.
He said their roles as elected members would be to organize communal labour, collate views and complaints from community members and present them to the Assemblies for redress and urged them to keep to that mandate.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the campaign promises, Mrs Afutu said Assembly and Unit Committee members should not emulate parliamentarians in making promises for capital projects because they have no common fund for such. She said the reality is that MPs have a common fund, but Assembly members don’t have and don’t have to make these promises.
This is because by the time they even enter the Assembly, the development plan has already been made and budgeted for. She said some Assembly members make campaign promises, get to the Assemblies and cannot fulfil them. Local governance experts say the practice of Assembly member aspirants promising capital projects is due to how apathy has characterized local-level elections over the years.
The Electoral Commission has slated October 3rd 2023 for the District Level Elections, however, it was yet to announce the processes, including dates for filing of nominations. The date, according to the Commission, is subject to change depending on the early approval of the Constitutional Instrument 91 before Parliament.
Source: GNA