Ejisu (Ash), June 22, GNA - Participants at a district level consultative forum in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality on the Constitution review have expressed the view that election to the district assemblies should be made partisan.

They said Article 248 of the Constitution, precluding political parties from endorsing, sponsoring and offering a platform to or in any way campaigning for a candidate seeking election to a district assembly or any lower local government unit, must be expunged. The contributors, many of them assembly members, said it should not be lost on anyone that the assembly polls were influenced by the political parties.

Added to this, is the fact that the 30 per cent appointees to the assemblies made by the President, invariably tend to be people with strong links to the ruling political party, who contested but lost the assembly elections.

They said it was time "we stopped pretending that we are operating a non-partisan system."

They argued that the district level polls would become more lively and attractive if the political parties became openly involved. Again they were unanimous in their position that metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives should be elected to make them more accountable to the people.

The current arrangement where these officials are appointed by the President created conditions for arrogance and corruption, they said. The participants also want a limit to be set on the number of ministers the President could appoint to rein in government's expenditure. Mr Henry Delengo Folie, a Researcher to the Constitution Review Commission, urged all Ghanaians to show keen interest in the review process to make it a success. 22 June 10