Oswald Azumah[1]

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ABSTRACT

“…In solemn declaration and affirmation of our commitment to; Freedom, Justice, probity and Accountability…” – Preamble to the 1992 Constitution.

The quote above underscores the commitment of the Ghanaian people to holding their government to proper checks. The Constitution itself highlights multiple avenues for checking the government—among them, Judicial Review and Periodic Elections, among others. These give force to the words above which were extracted from the preamble. The excessive powers of the President have, however, interfered with the achievement of some of these goals, among them, accountability to the people at the local government level, primarily because the heads of the respective local governments (i.e.) Mayors and Chief Executives are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the President. Multiple attempts to change the law have not been successful. Within a page, I intend to draw inspiration from midterm elections in the US to campaign for changing the law to allow for mayoral elections and the introduction of midterms in some form in Ghana.

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Introduction

Americans vote every two years. The presidential election cycle is four years while the legislative elections come around every two years. Members of the lower chamber, the House are elected to serve a two year term while members of the upper chamber, Senators, serve a six-year term. Nonetheless, approximately one-third of the total membership of the Senate is elected every two years[2] since the six year terms did not start simultaneously.

The legislative elections which happens two years after the Presidential elections is known as the midterms because it is happening midway into the President’s tenure.

The midterms will test America’s confidence in Biden 

The US goes to the polls today, November 8, 2022. They are voting for congressional leaders in what could flip the House[3] and Senate in favour of the Republicans.

The possibility of this eventuality has kept the Biden-led administration on its toes—the margin between the two parties already being close in the House. Only Vice President Kamala Haris’s vote gives the Democrats an urge in the Senate.[4]|[5]

POTUS Joe Biden has delivered many goodies to Americans despite the challenges caused by COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. A key driver of the US government’s robust policies is that the 2020 mandate is being tested just two years into Democrat, President Biden’s tenure. Losing either chamber of Congress would be a de-facto vote of no confidence in the administration.

The reality of midterms can therefore not be glossed over when discussing Biden’s accountability to the American electorate.

What then can we learn from the US midterms for our own Constitutional governance?

How then can the Ghanaian people draw on these facts to give more force to the words of the preamble to the 1992 Constitution? Revolutionise the local government.

First of all, the need to amend Article 243 of the Constitution which gives the President the power to appoint mayors and Chief Executives of Metro, Municipal and District Assemblies cannot be overstated. The consequential amendments, including their dismissal, are also implied.

Funding for the local government must be revolutionized to allow robust internal revenue generation by the local government. Effective and proper devolution must be prioritized especially in terms of revenue allocation from the central government—which must include scrapping the MPs’ allocation[6] of the Assemblies’ Common Fund.

This will effectively solve the misunderstanding of the roles of legislators who can then focus on their duties instead of promising electorates what is not within their mandates because then, the voters can hold their mayors to task.

In Article 53(3) of the 1992 Constitution, political parties are barred from local government elections. President Akufo-Addo sought to change this by calling for a referendum but a last-minute U-turn by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to campaign for a NO-VOTE meant the government could not rally voters to get the needed threshold. The referendum was abandoned[7] alongside the quest to amend Article 243 to give the people power to elect their mayors.

The time to revisit the abortive referendum and amendment of Article 243 is now. Ghanaians thirst to elect their own leaders at all levels of government and the time is now.

Regional Coordinating Councils are an effective part of local government, which means Regional Ministers must be elected in gubernatorial polls—effectively changing their title to Governors. This will increase their accountability to the people and diminish loyalty to the President. The presidency must be demystified and waned off its excessive powers.

Conclusion

The need to run these elections on partisan basis & midterms

How then do Ghanaians ensure these drastic changes at the local government level put the central government on its toes? The answer is to make these elections run on partisan basis.

Like Joe Biden, any government which is conscious of elections in two years, instead of four, would double up efforts which we see from them in the year preceding each election year and the election year itself. The entire four-year mandate of the president then becomes a year before election and an election year. How do we achieve this?

Two proposals arise. The local government elections; mayoral and gubernatorial, could be run alongside the Presidential elections—and the Parliamentary elections moved to halfway through the president’s term. This would ensure the executive pursues people-centered policies or risk losing the legislature.

If they meet a hostile House when they take over government, the message would be “vote for our candidates and our wonderful policies will go through”—evidence of this is in the UK Brexit vote where the people voted massively for Tories when the previous hung House of Commons repeatedly blocked the Brexit deal.[8]

If the government meets a friendly House, the message for the midterms would be “retain our candidates or the next Parliament will reverse our gains.”

The other option is to maintain the current norm of Presidential and Parliamentary elections being held together and sending the local government elections to the midterms.

Although this cannot stymie the executive if their party loses—as they may still have the House—losing in the local government elections halfway through their tenure is the people telling the central government that it has lost their trust and confidence.

This can only be achieved and properly measured when we allow political parties at the local government level.

The question for deliberation assuming these reflections are implemented or were adopted prior to 2022 is that given the country’s ongoing crisis with unprecedented inflation rates and in recent memory and conflict of interest issues with the President and his cousin-Finanace Minister, as well as multiple labour union agitations,  would Akufo-Addo survive a midterm election?

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[1] The author—Oswald Azumah is a journalist and Political Analyst & freelance writer. He is a child rights activist and a 2018 NSPCC Fellow.

[2] United States Senate. Senators. Retrieved on November 8, 2022 from https://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_index_subjects/Senators_vrd.htm#:~:text=A%20senator’s%20term%20of%20office,is%20elected%20every%20two%20years.

[3] Weissert W, (2022). These Democrats flipped House in 2018—2022 will be harder. Retrieved on November 8, 2022 from https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-business-congress-689603a0b0446c3568fe96270c7b3c7b

[4] The GOP holds 50 of the 100 seats in Senate while Dems hold 48 in addition two Independent Democrats, making their tally 50 as well.

[5] Rama P, (2012). Maine Independent Angus King to Caucus with Senate Democrats. Retrieved on November 8, 2022 from https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/11/14/165149633/maine-independent-angus-king-to-caucus-with-senate-democrats

[6] Appiah-Agyekum N, Local Government Finance in Ghana: Disbursement and Utilization of the MPs share of the District Assemblies Common Fund. (2013). Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance 12, DOI:10.5130/cjlg.v12i0.3275

[7] Citinews, (2019). Government cancels December 17 Referendum. Retrieved on November 8, 2022 from https://citinewsroom.com/2019/12/govt-cancels-december-17-referendum/

[8] MacLellan K, (2020). UK election result ‘blew away’ argument for second Brexit vote: Labour’s Starmer. Retrieved on November 8, 2022 from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-starmer-idUSKBN1Z40F3

Source - Oswald Azumah