{"id":667665,"date":"2019-07-30T11:04:59","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T11:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"<br><div>\n\t\t\n<p><strong>Parliament of Ghana<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was stalemate yesterday in Parliament regarding the debate\non the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019, that would make it possible for the\nelection of metropolitan, municipal and distric"},"modified":"2019-07-30T11:04:59","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T11:04:59","slug":"mps-clash-over-dces-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/30\/mps-clash-over-dces-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs Clash Over DCEs Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Parliament of Ghana<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There was stalemate yesterday in Parliament regarding the debate<br \/>\non the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019, that would make it possible for the<br \/>\nelection of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs).<\/p>\n<p>The Majority New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Minority National<br \/>\nDemocratic Congress (NDC) during the debate that characterized the second<br \/>\nreading of the bill clashed on the amendment of Article 243 (1) of the 1992<br \/>\nConstitution to take away the executive power of the President to appoint<br \/>\nMMDCEs.<\/p>\n<p>The Majority NPP wanted the amendment of Article 243 (1) which<br \/>\nstates inter alia that \u201cthere shall be a district chief executive for every<br \/>\ndistrict who shall be appointed by the President with the prior approval of not<br \/>\nless than two-thirds majority of members of the Assembly present and voting at<br \/>\nthe meeting\u201d to be amended to give that power to the people to elect their own<br \/>\nMMDCEs before a referendum after which there can be any other consequential amendments<br \/>\nin relation to\u00a0 the election of MMDCEs.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Majority, when the first step of ceding the power<br \/>\nof election of MMDCEs to the electorate is done, the people would realise the<br \/>\ncommitment of the government which made that promise in its manifesto that they<br \/>\nwould be allowed to elect their own MMDCEs to ensure better accountability at<br \/>\nthe district level.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Minority<br \/>\nPosition<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, argued that in principle, the<br \/>\nMinority NDC is not against the elections of MMDCEs but the amendment of the Constitution<br \/>\nto allow for the election of the MMDCEs must be tied simultaneously with the<br \/>\namendment of Article 243 (3) and Article 248 (1) and (2).<\/p>\n<p>According to him,\u00a0 Article<br \/>\n248 (1) which says \u201ca candidate seeking election to a District Assembly or any<br \/>\nlower local government unit shall present himself to the electorate as an<br \/>\nindividual, and shall not use any symbol associated with any political party; and<br \/>\nArticle 248 (2) which says \u201ca political party shall not endorse, sponsor, offer<br \/>\na platform to or in any way campaign for or against a candidate seeking<br \/>\nelection to a District Assembly or any lower local government\u2019 must as well be<br \/>\namended to give proper meaning to the amendment of Article 243 (1) which Parliament<br \/>\nis seeking to amend first.<\/p>\n<p>The Minority Leader said all the reservations expressed by the Minority<br \/>\nmust be critically\u00a0 considered because<br \/>\nthe majority NPP does not have overwhelming number to get two-thirds votes in Parliament<br \/>\nto have that amendment go through.<\/p>\n<p><strong>OB<br \/>\nAmoah<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development,<br \/>\nalso the NPP MP for Akwapim South, O. B. Amoah accused the Minority of \u2018double<br \/>\nstandards\u2019 after supporting the election of the MMDCEs during various public<br \/>\nfora on the subject matter and coming to the floor of the House to oppose it.<\/p>\n<p>He said if all the hierarchy of the NDC including their national<br \/>\nofficers could attend various stakeholders\u2019 meetings to endorse such a proposal<br \/>\nby the government and turn round to oppose the move, then the sincerity of the<br \/>\nopposition is clearly in doubt.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, if the power of electing MMDCEs is not taken<br \/>\nfrom the President and given to the electorate they cannot be asked whether the<br \/>\nelection of the MMDCEs should be on partisan basis or not.<\/p>\n<p>He, therefore, asked the Minority to rethink their position and<br \/>\nsupport the government\u2019s intention to allow for the election of MMDCEs.<\/p>\n<p>The First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who was presiding, decided to defer the vote on the second reading because of the clear disagreement between the Majority and the Minority for consensus building.<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Thomas Fosu Jnr<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parliament of Ghana There was stalemate yesterday in Parliament regarding the debate on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019, that would make it possible for the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs). The Majority New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the debate that characterized the second reading of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":655702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MPs Clash Over DCEs Elections - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/30\/mps-clash-over-dces-elections\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"MPs Clash Over DCEs Elections - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Parliament of Ghana There was stalemate yesterday in Parliament regarding the debate on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019, that would make it possible for the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs). 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