The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Member of Parliament for the Suame Constituency, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, has emphasized the need for a country, especially Ghana to practice the minimalist approach in our electoral system, so that electorates can focus more on ideas and not on personalities.

He said the time has come for the country to embrace what we call “minimalism” in our electoral system to be able to cutdown the number of political parties that participate in an elections to the most basic ones, without embellishment

This, He said would help electorates to vote on the basis of ideas and not just on personalities.

“We’re all center party imposed by the constitution. So…Why do we need so many political parties when some of them are singing the same tune?

In that event, it reduces the contest to personalities, not to ideas”. The Minister intimated.

Citing an incident that took place in a family meeting during the 1992 elections, where a cousin of the minister (Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu), suggested they vote for Former President Rawlings because of his looks and personality.

The family, He recalled, were talking about which party was offering the best prospects of governance, and his cousin’s only intervention was to suggest they all vote for Rawlings against Adu Boahen because Rawlings was handsome.

And at that moment, he said, Governance had reduced to a beauty contest without realising it.

Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, said this during an engagement between the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Civil Society Organisation, on Thursday October 15, 2020, in Accra.

The program which brought together CSO’s, the Media and Staff of MoPA, was under the theme “ Civil Society Organisation and Democratic Elections in Ghana; The 2020 Election in Focus.

The Minister Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, was of the view that the time is right to take a serious look at a complete overhaul of the Constitution.

“We have to build on the work of the Constitutional Review Commission and bring it to a conclusion through a Consultative Assembly

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs look forward to consolidating our relations with you going forward by engaging relevant CSOs as stakeholders on Bills, Instruments, Agreements etc”. He disclosed.

He however, urged the Civil Society Organizations to help with voter education in addition to support and ensure vigilance at the polls, within these last 42-days to the elections.

“Your advocacy must also go to eliminate violence and diminish the fear and panic. By God’s grace, we have been through six successive, successful and peaceful elections. Election 2020 cannot be an exception

Civil Society advocacy has taken our political system notches higher. I must salute the brave men and women who operate in that space”, He acknowledged.

The ministry’s objective for this collaborative engagement was to Examine the context within which the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary you elections would be conducted.

They also sought to Analyse the perspectives CSO’s can bring to shape the conduct of a free, fair and transparent elections, as well as review the growing challenges confronting CSO’s in performing their democracy enhancing roles.

Source: Editor/www.newslinegh.com

Exclusively Newslinegh