The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) has said it does not support the proposal for the President to nominate five persons from whom three would contest District Chief Executives (DCEs) elections as contained in the government's position paper on the Constitutional Review Committee's report.

‎The Institute said the proposal would exclude political parties and individuals not aligned with the government from participating in the local governance system and would not promote free democratic choice.  

A Senior Research Fellow at IDEG, ‎Mr Kwesi Jonah, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that DCEs should be elected directly by the people without presidential intervention, a position the Institute had advocated for more than 10 years.  

‎The government’s position paper on the Constitution Review Committee (CRC) report proposes that the President nominate five persons, two of whom shall be women.   

Three of the five would then be shortlisted, including at least one woman, after vetting by a committee comprising representatives of the Ministry of Local Government, the Public Services Commission and the Local Government Service.  

‎The three shortlisted persons would subsequently contest the election for District Chief Executive.  

‎Mr Jonah explained that the proposal appeared intended to prevent other political parties from contesting the DCE elections on the grounds that candidates who were not members of the governing party might not be able to work with the President.  

‎“But in a democracy, the Chief Executive must be directly accountable to the people over whom he’s governing and the only way to do that is to allow free election and let not the President choose for anybody” he said.  

‎Mr Jonah said political parties should be allowed to determine who they wanted to field through a free process, including primaries, rather than have candidates selected through a presidential nomination process.  

‎He said although IDEG supported the direct election of DCEs, the proposal for the President to nominate the candidates would not ensure accountability to people at the local level.  

‎“We fully support the direct election of DCEs for purpose of accountability…. Now this whole idea of the President selecting five people, what kind of democracy is this?” he said.  

‎Mr Jonah said persons nominated by the President to contest DCE elections could feel accountable primarily to the appointing authority rather than the people at the local level.  

‎He said allowing the President to nominate candidates and effectively guide voters on whom they could choose did not uphold the democratic principle of free choice.  

‎“When people decide that they want to have control over the persons who become their District Chief Executives, let the people themselves vote freely. Don’t allow the President to choose the candidates for them, it doesn’t work in a democracy,” he said.