The Member of Parliament for Kwabre East in the Ashanti Region, Hon. Francisca Oteng-Mensah, has urged Ghanaians especially constituents of Kwabre East not only vote for a ‘YES’ in the upcoming referendum on the introduction of multiparty democracy at the District Assembly Levels, but to also go out and campaign massively for a YES vote, in order to meet the required constitutional threshold of 75%.

According to her, a YES vote will provide a greater opportunity for citizens of voting age to participate in political activities intended to influence policies at the local government level, and also meet the constitutional mandate imposed on political parties to freely participate in shaping the political will of the people; and thereby strengthen the nation’s local government regime.

Hon. Francisca Oteng, also called on all patriotic citizens to ignore the NO campaign being championed by a section of the NDC and few others.

The NO campaign, She said, is anchored on deliberate distortions, misinformation and falsehoods with the view of misleading and hoodwinking Ghanaians from supporting the referendum in order to satisfy their parochial interest at the expense of the nation.

She said the NDC, throughout the process, was in consensus with all the other political parties, civil society organizations and had, in fact, canvassed strong arguments in favour of a YES vote to allow political parties to participate in local government, and therefore wondered why the party would make a hypocritical U-turn at the eleventh hour, barely 4 weeks to the referendum.

The NDC’s press conference announcing their U-turn in breach of the consensus with other political parties and civil society organisations according to her, has only exposed the NDC’s hypocrisy, treachery, inconsistency and deceit.

“Nobody is taking issues with the NDC for having a change of mind, but equity demands that, they do this with some candour and sincerity.

They should not deliberately create their own distortions and falsehood and then on the basis of that, suggest that it is rather government and the NPP that had acted in bad faith when in fact and indeed, all the processes leading to the referendum thus far were done with their concurrence and active participation, having fully appreciated the essence of the exercise. She reiterated.

Speaking to issue, she said, “It is sad that leaders of the NDC are ready to sacrifice their credibility and the image of multi-party democracy by openly breaching the faith and trust they engendered in religious groups by proclaiming YES to the Referendum”.

Hon. Francisca Oteng made these remarks in an interaction with reporters, after a sensitization meeting with some of her constituents on Monday 18, 2019, in the Kwabre East constituency.

The sensitisation programme which was to educate constituents on the upcoming referendum, was to also urge them joining the campaign for YES vote in order to successfully amend Article 55(3) of the Constitution to allow political parties sponsor candidates for local government elections, and for voters to be able to hold political parties directly accountable for their stewardship at the local and not just the national level.

The Kwabre East legislator also used the opportunity to commend President Akufo-Addo for demonstrating a strong commitment to giving real meaning to the concept of decentralization and bringing good local governance to the Ghanaian people in a free and fair atmosphere by agreeing, rather unconventionally, to devolve his appointive power back to the people to decide who they want to have as their MMDCEs.

She however, promised to intensify her campaign for an emphatic YES vote and to ensure that the majority of Ghanaian electorates and her constituents in particular, support the referendum to change the face of Ghana’s local government regime from the current undemocratic nature inherited from the military system to be in tandem with our current constitutional democracy.

Source: Editor/www.newslinegh.com

 

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