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Such obvious democratic objective is somewhat undermined however, by the maintenance of powers of appointment by the President, including that of the District Chief Executive (Article 243[1]). Therefore, it is clear both in the provisions of the Local Government Act and the Decentralisation Policy that decentralisation in Ghana was planned to facilitate good local governance (for instance, participation and accountability are unambiguously stated). This in turn would promote local development through infrastructure development and efficient service delivery. One of the important prerequisites to achieve the aims and objectives of the democratic local governance system is electoral participation which affords the local populace the opportunity to least hold their elected public officials accountable periodically. 1.3 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM The rhetoric of decentralisation in Ghana does not match the results on the ground. Lack of adequate funding to the district assemblies and visible reluctance to devolve essential functions to the district assemblies are some of the indicators. In addition, the government still manifests overt tendencies of centralization reminiscent of the District Assemblies’ affairs through the appointment by the President of the Republic of Ghana the District Chief Executives of the District, Municipal and the Metropolitan Assemblies and thirty percent (30%) members of the Assemblies. The district assemblies are now dominated by government appointees and officials who are not directly accountable to it and which it has neither the mandate nor the influence to hire or fire let alone discipline. Matters are exacerbated by the fact that the Assemblies have failed to promote good local governance and therefore jeopardized any opportunities of poverty reduction. Though both the constitution and the Local Government Act placed emphasis on participation and accountability (both vertical and horizontal), there is no real participation at the grassroots, instead a top-down approach in different guise is in operation; again there is lack of accountability at both local and district levels. Local and district elites have usurped the decentralisation initiatives to their advantage. ‘A government has not decentralized unless the country contains autonomous elected sub-national governments capable of taking binding decisions in… some policy areas’ (World Bank, 1999: 108). But before the sub-national governments can attain a considerable level of autonomy the citizens must participate actively in the affairs of the sub-national governments. The crisis of participation facing developing countries including Ghana is leading to threats to the general stability of these countries which have only recently, in the last two decades, moved toward more democratic governance. Dahl (1956) cited in (Ifiok, 2007:8) argues that an efficient democracy is only possible when citizens can participate in governance. One of the most significant trends in Ghana’s local government politics for the past two decades has been the low level of the proportion of the eligible electorate who actually vote in the district assembly elections. Ghana’s District Assemblies and Unit committees composed of seventy (70%) elected representatives from all the communities within the districts known as the ‘Electoral Areas or wards’ which is based on the principle of universal adult suffrage, secret ballot as well as the first-past-the-post system and thirty (30%) government appointees which is done by the sitting president in consultation with traditional leaders and other interest groups within the districts. For an ordinary citizen to be elected he or she must be a citizen of Ghana, 18 years old, ordinarily a resident in the district and had paid up all his or her taxes and rates. According to the 1992 constitution: “A candidate seeking election to a District Assembly or any lower local government unit shall present himself to the electorate as an individual, and shall not use any symbol associated with any political party. A political party shall not endorse, sponsor, offer a platform to or in any way campaign for or against a candidate seeking election to a District Assembly or any lower local government unit” (Ghana, 1992:153). This particular provision has been a subject of debate among stakeholders in Ghana. Some experts argue that since there was no constitution in 1988 when the local government reform began its electoral principles could not have been based on partisanship. However, others are arguing that there is the need to amend the constitution to make the district level-election partisan since the current provision is inconsistent with the ideals of multiparty democracy being practised at the national level. |
