Akufo-Addo will use elections to end uproar over DCE nominations

Information Minister Mustapha Hamid has said government will introduce elections at the local government level to cure the outbreak of violent resistance against nominations to such posts by the president.

“Within this four years of Akufo-Addo’s governance, we are going to make the necessary constitutional changes to allow for the election of DCEs directly by the people themselves, ” he said.

True t the script of politics in Ghana, irate party supporters have violently kicked against some of the president’s 212 nominees to represent him at the local levels.

In the Savelugu-Nanton municipality of the Northern region, youth burnt NPP billboard and tyres protesting the nomination of Hajia Ayishetu Seidu as the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE).

In an area like Zebilla in the Bawku West district, party supporters vandalized party and government properties a day before the release of the nominations.

They had hoped the president will not pick Victoria Ayamba as DCE as it had been rumoured. Their hopes were dashed.

The number of hotspots for violence could grow in the coming days with uneasy calm reported in Sandema in the Builsa North district and Mpohoor in the Western region.

Information minister Mustapha Hamid told Joy News, the police need not be told what to do about the violence.

“The police know what their mandate is…they are already empowered to deal ruthlessly with people who destroy public properties in the name of expressing disagreement over the appointment of a DCE”.




But taking a governance view on the matter, he reiterated the party’s 2016 campaign promise to have DCEs elected.

The move will be an introduction of a fourth layer of democracy in Ghana’s governance following the election of Assembly men and women, MPs and a President.

Taking this promise into account, Mustapha Hamid said “hopefully, this is the last time these things will happen in our body politic whether NPP is in power or NDC is in power”

“When the vote is counted that one will never generate an uproar just as MPs never generate disagreement ….because everybody understands the will of the majority prevails so it will be applied to the DCE concept,” the Minister said.