Parliament has today, Tuesday, October 25, stepped up efforts in deliberations on the Local Governance Bill.
The Bill is expected to address various issues at the local government level including the procedure to adopt in the election of presiding members. If passed the initial two-thirds majority of assembly members needed to elect a presiding member will no longer be in operation.
Rather, a simple majority system will be adopted. It will be recalled that developmental projects in Kumasi stalled for many months due to the inability of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to get a two-thirds majority to elect a presiding member.
More than five attempts at elections did not produce any results as the polls were marked by violence and an entrenched stance by nominated aspirants who had refused to agree for a compromise candidate to head the assembly.
Local Government Minister Alhaji Collins Dauda, who spoke in an interview with Class News, explained that such challenges will no longer be encountered after the passage of the bill.
“Why is it that in the KMA alone gods were invoked [over the presiding member issue]? We are looking at how to make it more flexible because it involves all members of the assembly [during the polls] which makes it more difficult,” he added.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
