Three Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called on stakeholders to actively play their roles in ensuring the successful conduct of this year’s District Level Election (DLE).
They made the call in a statement issued in Accra on Monday and sighted by Citi News.
The CSOs are the Local Governance Network (LOGNet), the Chamber for Local Governance (CHALOG), and the Public Financial Management (PFM).
These CSOs have asked the government to resource the Electoral Commission (EC), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), and the Information Services Department (ISD) to undertake education and awareness creation activities.
“The remuneration of Assembly Members’ must be enhanced to make service at the local level more attractive; End-of-Service Benefits, for example, could be paid from the Consolidated
Fund and allocated equitably across all MMDAs,” the CSOs added in the statement.
They among other things also asked the Electoral Commission (EC)to publicise its registration and election timetable at the earliest opportunity, equip all Regional and District EC Offices to begin nationwide education on the DLE process with support from the NCCE, Information Services Department (ISD), CSOs and the media fraternity.
“The EC must enforce the existing law that bars political parties’ infiltration in DLEs to reduce the monetization and partisanship in DLEs and allow the citizens to choose those
who can best represent them,” he stated.
Again, these CSOs asked the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) to collaborate with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) to develop targeted mentorship and campaign support for women and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs).
“MLGRD must intensify its monitoring of District Assemblies and sanction those who fail to be transparent and accountable to their citizens per provisions for accountability in Act 936
(as amended in Act 940),” they added.
Furthermore, they also called on CSOs to strengthen collaboration with the NCCE and EC, use staff and volunteers for door-to-door education, share DLE information on their media platforms, and assist in the
organisation of town halls or similar/forums for candidates to share their campaign messages.
“CSOs can collaborate with development partners to enhance DLE candidates’ capacity to utilize social media and digital technologies for election campaigning and messaging.
CSOs and development partners can support the development of focus groups and local parliaments for underrepresented groups (youth, women, PWDs),” they added.