A decentralisation expert, Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, has stated that although about 80 per cent of stakeholders in the district assembly concept favour the election of District Chief Executives (DCEs), he is of the strong conviction that any move towards that would bring anarchy, inefficiency and marginalisation of women. He explained that quite a number of districts in the country were made up of majority and minority ethnic groups and with such local elections, there was the likelihood that those from the majority ethnic groups would always be elected and this would make the minority ethnic group feel marginalised. Mr Ahwoi, who was a Minister of Local Government and Rural Development during the Rawlings Regime, was speaking at a two-day review workshop on proposals for Constitutional Amendments in Aburi in the Eastern Region. It was organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for the four political parties with representation in Parliament under its IEA Ghana Political Parties Programme. Mr Ahwoi, who based his argument on various research he had conducted on the election of DCEs for a number of organisations including the Constitution Review Committee, said when the minority ethnic group felt marginalised and excluded in local governance, they would begin to agitate to have a district of their own. This, he explained “will introduce anarchy into the local governance system” because the authorities would not be able to meet such demands, especially when such areas did not satisfy the criteria for becoming a district assembly. He added that elections do not necessarily produce efficient and competent persons but always the most popular, and that the DCE’s position, unlike that of the member of parliament (MP) or the minister of state required a person with the competence to manage a limited liability company. He added that district assemblies were setup as legal entity that could sue and be sued and therefore needed a manager with minimum competence to manage it effectively and efficiently. According to Mr Ahwoi, it had been noticed that district level elections had not produced enough female assembly members and that any attempt to make the position of the DCE elective would be “ a big blow to affirmative action”. He stated that in the 2006 district assembly elections, only three per cent of women were elected, and that it was the government that used its 30 per cent appointment mechanism to raise the number to 11 per cent and that the likelihood of it being repeated during the election of DCEs was real. He said for instance, in the present situation where there were only 12 women DCEs out of the 170, “ my prediction is that we may not even get four women DCEs if we decide to elect them”. Mr Ahwoi said it was not for nothing that President J. A. Kufuor, who campaigned on the message of electing DCEs, decided not to implement his campaign promise and even advised Ghanaians in his last address to parliament not to make the position of the DCEs elective. In the consensus reached by the political parties prior to the meeting, they had recommended that the constitution procedure for appointing DCEs should be maintained, but the appointed members of the district assembly should not take part in the voting to approve the DCE. It said the approval should be done by the elected members acting as the electoral college of the district with the mandate of the electorate to act on their behalf. Madam Gloria Ofori-Buadu, an NPP representative and a gender activist was of the opinion that the DCEs must be elected so that they would appreciate the fact that they derived their powers from the local people and were also responsible to them. He said the DCEs should not be made to think that because they were appointed by “some powers in Accra” their first allegiance was to those who appointed them and their foot soldiers. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana