The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) has said government’s decision to extend the deadline for the election of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) is a clear indication that due diligence was not done in making the promise.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in its 2016 manifesto promised to oversee the direct election of MMDCEs within 24 months of election into office, to coincide with the next District Assembly elections in 2019.

But speaking in a recent interview, Deputy Local Government Minister, O.B Amoah, stated unequivocally that, the election of MMDCEs will certainly not take place in 2018.

“It is not 2018; I don’t know why this thing keeps coming up and indeed if we want to go the full hog and make the election partisan, it means we should even do a referendum to amend article 55 (3) so that we can get MMDCEs elected on multi-party basis. So we are working towards that, but certainly, it is not 2018,” he said.

Government has come under pressure over the decision to allow the elections take place in 2021 with many describing the move as government breaking its 2016 manifesto promise to have the elections conducted in its first 24 months.

“This shows how manifesto promises need to be more seriously interrogated and why we should create conditions for our parties to translate their manifestoes into programmes, so that we can discuss the questions of how they are going to do it, what effect it will have on the system, what it will cost us, what time lines are so that realistically we will expect implementation,” said the Executive Director of IDEG, Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey at a press conference Wednesday.

Also, he said the postponement of the elections will lead to enhanced feasibility studies in order to seamlessly implement the policy.