John Mahama, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer and former president, has congratulated the newly elected members of the Assembly and Unit Committee in the recently concluded district-level elections.
He exhorted them to put in a lot of effort and actively participate in the nation’s development.
“Congratulations to all who participated in the exercise. And to our newly elected Assembly Members across the country, let me remind you that we all have a responsibility to contribute and ensure that we get our decentralization right.” He said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Mr. Mahama also reaffirmed his pledge to provide Assembly members with a stipend in the event that he wins the presidency in the general elections of 2024.
“I remain committed, when voted as the President of Ghana in 2024, to begin paying allowances to all Assembly Members to help them carry out their duties” he said.
See the post below;
I exercised my civic responsibility as a Ghanaian by voting in Tuesday’s district-level elections at the Bole District Assembly polling station.
Congratulations to all who participated in the exercise. And to our newly elected Assembly Members across the country, let me remind… pic.twitter.com/AaTOJZTbTq
— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) December 20, 2023
Relatedly, if he wins the 2024 election, former president John Dramani Mahama has pledged to raise the District Assemblies Common Fund from the current 5% to 7%.
The opposition NDC presidential candidate asserts that adequate funding for district assemblies would improve the effectiveness and influence of local government.
According to Citinewsroom.com, he made the pledge in Bole, his hometown, on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, following his vote in the district assembly elections.
“If God smiles on us, and we win the 2024 elections, we are going to take decentralization seriously, the rest of the ministries seriously, and the rest of the MMDAs that are still centralized. We are going to make sure that District Common Fund disbursement increases from 5% to 7%, as enforced in 2016, and that the District Assemblies Common Fund is going to be regular so that districts can take advantage of it to increase the pace of their development,” the news website quotes Mahama as having said.
“We are going to complete the decentralization so that we truly hand over power to the people at the local government level. Until we get our decentralization right, Ghana is not going to go anywhere, and so we are going to take it seriously,” he acknowledged.
Speaking about some of the difficulties that some regions of the nation experienced during the district assembly elections, Mahama urged the Ghanaian electoral commission to take action to prevent similar difficulties from occurring during the general elections in 2024.
He claims that because there are a lot of stakes in the elections the following year, problems like broken voting machines and delayed voting procedures that occurred in the local elections need to be avoided.
