The Electoral Commission has set December 17, 2019, as the new date for the referendum on the election of Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives.<\/p>\n
The EC had earlier fixed referendum on December 10, 2019.<\/p>\n
At a media"},"modified":"2019-08-16T13:17:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T13:17:14","slug":"ec-moves-referendum-on-elections-of-mmdces-to-december-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/08\/16\/ec-moves-referendum-on-elections-of-mmdces-to-december-17\/","title":{"rendered":"EC moves referendum on elections of MMDCEs to December 17"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
The Electoral Commission has set December 17, 2019, as the new date for the referendum on the election of Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives.<\/p>\n
The EC had earlier fixed referendum on December 10, 2019.<\/p>\n
At a media encounter in May, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama said a road map for the development of the different phases of the election of MMDCE\u2019s was being worked on.<\/p>\n
The Commission explained that the change in the date was because of the delays caused by legal action at the Supreme Court to stop the recently ended limited registration of voters.<\/p>\n
The Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, announced the new date at the launch of a coalition formed by some civil society organisations (CSOs) to push for the election of MMDCEs on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The election of MMDCEs was a major campaign promise of the New Patriotic Party in the run-up to the 2016 election.<\/p>\n
The government most recent step in this regard was presenting amendment Bills<\/strong><\/span> to Parliament.<\/p>\n Two bills are seeking amendments to Articles 243(1) and 55(3) for the election of MMDCEs and introduction of political party participation in the local elections.<\/p>\n At the moment, the law, in Article 243 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, says District Chief Executives for every district were to be appointed by the President with the prior approval of not less than two-thirds majority of members of the assembly present and voting at the meeting.<\/p>\n