Assembly Elections Platform To Be Banned

A ban is yet to be imposed against the mounting of campaign platforms by candidates who will be aspiring to contest for positions as District Assembly members.

The ban will manly seek to prohibit individuals contesting from mounting platforms to drums up support for votes from the eligible electoral in their designated electoral areas.

These restrictions  will also be affected by political parties that may be supportive to the election of a candidate to a District Assembly or to a lower government unit .

This was revealed when a report containing the District Amendments bill was laid on the Parliament House  for approval by the Chairman of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development and Member of Parliament for Garu/Tempane Constituency ,Mr. Dominic Azumah.

In the report which was read on the floor , cited and proposed that the bill if approved by members of the house will go a long way to strengthen and serve as the yardstick to mandate organizations that has no political linkages to mount platforms with the prior written approval from the electoral commission.

This it also stressed would only be for the common use of the candidates contesting for the election.

According to the chairman, he indicated that any organization other than a political party which desires to mount a platform shall officially apply to the Electoral Commission for an approval and will be made pertaining to the terms of the approval.

In the report further mentioned that any individual who contravenes  subsection (1) of the six clauses commits an offence and will be liable on a summary conviction to a fine of not exceeding two hundred and fifty cedis  (GH 250) as a penalty, where as political parties that also violates such clauses will be subjected to a fine of GH 250 as penalty units.

On his side , Papa  Owusu  Ankomah, Member of Parliament for Sekondi constituency, expressed displeasure towards the position taken since it will deliberately denies such individuals from their political rights as stipulated  by the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana.

The former Majority Leader therefore called for the abrogation of the bill as a matter of urgency since it will go a long way to keep interested people away from lobbing the electorates on a wider margin.

The Minority Leader , Mr. Osei  Kyei  Mensah, on his part disagreed and called that the bill should be taken into a second look for a proper consideration in other to curtail the heartbreaking clauses that might be preventing individuals from openly campaigning with the view of addressing to the people their plans and programmes.

In the case of the emoluments determination by the house for the Chief Executives in the various assemblies, Mr. Kyei  Mensah , further recommended to the local  Government Minister that immediate measures should be put across to enable that the house deal with such exercise.

The Minister for the Local Government and Rural Development , Mr. Joseph Yeileh Chireh, in his remarks recommended that the bill should be considered for a second thought and commended members for the effort s made to debate the bill.

The First Deputy Speaker ,Mr. Edward  Doe Adjaho, suspended the bill for approval and added that a prudent consideration shall be made before the house proceed for recess come July.