The Concerned Voters Movement (CVM) has urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and government to discontinue the campaign for ‘Yes’ vote in the upcoming referendum on December 17, 2019.

The referendum seeks to amend article 55 (3) to enable political parties to take part in the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).

“All members of the New Patriotic Party should campaign and vote against the partisan election of MMDCEs since NDC has failed to support such a laudable policy,” the group in a statement.

The group added: “Yes it was a campaign promise to the good people of Ghana but we have to admit that such a policy requires Constitutional amendments, unlike other campaign promises. We need a two-third majority in Parliament to amend Article 243(1) of the Constitution and about 74% of the total valid votes cast during the referendum to pave way for the amendment to the Article 55(3) of the Constitution.”

The statement signed by CVM Founder and President Razak Kojo Opoku, said the Majority in Parliament would need the support of Minority before the two-thirds majority needed to amend Article 243(1) of the constitution to pave the way for the election of MMDCEs.

“Again whether the election of MMDCEs should be partisan or non-partisan, the policy would require the support of Ghanaians through a referendum.

“However, the betrayal of the NDC and its Minority in Parliament would be a very clear sabotage to this referendum exercise.  There is no way we can achieve YES VOTE since the NDC are advocating for NO VOTE, and this exercise demands full Inter-Party Consensus especially from the two leading Political Parties, NPP and NDC,” the statement said.

“If NO VOTE wins on the 17th December Referendum, it will create suicidal tendencies for the New Patriotic Party ahead of the 2020 General Elections. It would give some political audacity to the 2020 campaign of the incompetent NDC. Let's avoid the political risk factors associated with the election of MMDCEs,” the CVM statement urged.

The group said the NPP and government need to officially boycott the December 17, 2019 referendum and also shoot down the amendment process for Article 243(1) in Parliament.

“We are not going to allow NCCE,  IDEG, CDD and NDC to cause political misfortunes for the New Patriotic Party,” the group stressed.