Supreme Court nominee, Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei, has called for a bold national conversation on the nature of Ghana’s local governance system, urging the nation to officially adopt a partisan approach to district assembly elections, which he says are already de facto political.

Speaking during his vetting before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Monday, June 16, Justice Adjei questioned the continued labelling of district assembly elections as “non-partisan”, arguing that in practice, political party affiliations are already deeply entrenched at the local level.

“My first proposal will be the district assembly,” he said.

“The position now, we are saying that it should be non-partisan, but on the ground, it is partisan. Why can’t we be bold to say that this is what initially we intended to achieve, but it cannot be achieved and therefore we can go the partisan way?” he asked.

Sir Adjei, who has also served as a Justice of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, said it was time Ghana faced the reality that local elections are heavily influenced by party politics.

According to him, recognising the role of political parties formally would bring greater transparency and possibly enhance accountability at the local level.

“Every assembly member – they will tell you that this one belongs to this party, and that one belongs to that party,” he observed.