WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK TO EDUCATE CITIZENS ON THE DLE AND REFERENDUM- NCCE

The Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Ms. Josephine Nkrumah, Chairperson and moderator at the just ended Public Conversations on the 2019 District Level Elections (DLE) and Referendum organized by the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) has called on all stakeholders to help reach out to all citizens to create awareness and whip up their interest to participate actively in the exercise. The theme was “Reforms, Benefits, Costs, and Participation: MMDCEs Elections and the 17^th December 2019 National Referendum”.

Ms. Nkrumah said that the NCCE has launched its’ Citizens’ Education and Awareness Raising Campaign on the Upcoming District Level Elections and Referendum and is working around the clock to sensitize citizens to get involved. She stated that in her tour around the country, she observed that the youth are questioning the need to get involved because they do not see any form of development in their communities. She urged all stakeholders to come on board to educate and encourage citizens to get involved in the DLEs and Referendum. “I believe that the true essence of democracy is the collective benefits of the nation must be felt by all of us”, she stated.

Executive Director, IDEG, Dr. Emmanuel O. Akwetey stated that the decision to amend Article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution is a step in the right direction to introduce a multi-partisan local government system in Ghana to allow political parties to participate in decentralized local governance. He stated that this would be the second national

referendum and this is an opportunity to fix some things in the democracy of Ghana. According to him, the essence of the reform is to help improve local development. He, therefore, called on all citizens to get involved in the national exercise.

President of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) urged the media to continue educating citizens on the need to get involved to make the exercise a success. The stated that as part of effort to reach out to citizens, the association has brought up agenda 4075 which is aimed at getting more than 40% of Ghanaians to vote and 75% to vote yes.

Representatives from all political platforms, faith-based organizations, civic society organizations were present and pledged total support towards the referendum, and called on the Electoral Commission to make the processes free and fair.