Local governance expert, George Kyei-Baffuor, has called for elections of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to curb increasing agitations against nominees by the President. Mr Kyei-Baffuor's call comes on the back of recent gun-attacks by seven men on the premises of the Bawku Municipal Assembly in protest against President John Mahama's nominee for Chief Executive for the town. The seven young men were arrested by the Bawku Police on Monday for allegedly masterminding the attacks. Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Tuesday September 3, Mr Kyei-Baffour stated "the issue is [that] the appointing system has perhaps outlived its usefulness with the development of our political processes...I think we ought to do something about it." Article 243(1) of the 1992 Constitution and the Local Government Act 462 gives the President the sole prerogative to appoint MMDCEs to steer the affairs of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies. However, Mr Kyei-Baffuor noted that because the President is not in all 216 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), he "relies on the party structures so the party's recommendations usually reflect the respective contradictions within the party and the contradictions reflect the power players in the game at the that [MMDA] level." He said the line of action for aggrieved persons who disagree with the choice of an MMDCE nominee is for them to make appeals to the assembly stating clearly the reasons they disapprove of a nominee. "Then the assembly, as embedded in the standing orders of the MMDAs can set up a vetting committee to vet the candidate taking into account all the issues that have been raised about him and if it is proven to have merit the assembly can recommend the rejection of the nominee", he said. However, he suggested that the aggrieved persons can, alternatively, send a representation to the appointing authority - or the President - for a reconsideration of an MMDCE appointment. Also, aggrieved persons can use internal mechanisms within the party to seek redress, he said. Citing "over-politicisation of the appointing process" as an overriding factor for the agitations, Mr Kyei-Baffuor called for change in the current situation where the appointing process is limited only to the party in power. According to Mr Kyei-Baffuor, the "acrimonious nature of our politics in this country" makes the process selecting an MMDCE a severe contest between contradicting internal factions, noting it is a major cause of the incessant anti MMDCE-nominee protests countrywide. Prior to the Bawku gun-attacks, there were wild protests in Nkwanta North in the Volta Region and Salaga in the Northern Region, where irate youth burnt vehicles and destroyed property - both in protest against an MMDCE nomination by the President for the towns.