SCRAP NOMINATIONS OF DCES (PAGE 14, JUNE 14, 2010)

STAKEHOLDERS at the Constitution Review Commission forum at Ashaiman have reached a consensus that nomination of Chief Executives and government appointees in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies must be scrapped and replaced with a democratically elected system.
This would make the assembly non-partisan as subscribed in the Local Government law which set up the assemblies, they stated.
They expressed the view that government appointments in the assembly had swayed decisions to favour the political party in government and therefore did not portray a genuine position of the people they represented.
The forum, which was to sample the views of people at the grass roots for possible amendments in the constitution, was patronised by tribal heads in Ashaiman, community-based organisations, Non governmental organisations (NGO) Security services and head of decentralised organisations.
Reverend Professor Samuel K. Adjepong, a member of the commission led a four member team of officers from the Commission to meet the people and to document their views.
The forum came out with views on the electoral process in the country noting that it was shrouded in some secrecy and called for an amendment to make it transparent.
They explained that, the Electoral Commission must be made autonomous by having its own source of funding instead of relying on the government.
On the number of ministers appointed by the government, the forum called for review of article 78(2) which did not put a ceiling on the number of ministers that the President could appoint and number of ministries the President may establish.
They expressed the view that ministers must not be appointed from Parliament to enable parliamentarians concentrate on their work.
Other areas they touched on included the tenure of office of the President, the ban onchiefs in politics and the role of the police and funding.
Rev. Prof. Adjepong commended the people of Ashaiman for their comportment and having made input to the review process.
He said Ashaiman was the first place in Greater Accra where the commission had made a stop.
Rev. Prof. Adjepong noted that the commission had received 6000 submissions since it started its work and appealed to every citizen to take part in the discussion when the commission got to their district.
He said the constitution was the most sovereign document any country could have and therefore needed to take the exercise serious.
Numo Addison urged them to be free in expressing their views without any political motive to make the document fit into the new trend of affairs .