MMDA elections: Amend Local Gov't Act to prevent partisanship - GIJ Lecturer

A senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Dr Paul Herzuah, has recommended that the government amends Ghana’s Local Government Act 1993, Act 462 (7) to prevent partisanship in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembly (MMDA) elections.

The Local Government Act 1993, Act 462 (7) (1) states that: “A candidate seeking election to a District Assembly or to any lower local government unit shall present himself to the electorate as an individual, and shall not use any symbol associated with a political party.”

However, Dr Herzuah, presenting a study on the topic, “Enacting identity in local elections in Accra: A multimodal critical discourse analysis”, found that a greater number of people who put themselves up for the 2015 District Assembly elections in some selected areas of Accra enacted their identity based on partisan cues of the two leading political parties in the country, NPP and NDC.

These aspirants used colours associated with the NPP and NDC in the design of their posters to appeal to the conscience of the electorate. A situation which contradicts Section (7) (1) of the Local Government Act.

“The Local Government Act 1993, Act 462 (7) 1 to 4, should be amended to eliminate grey areas in future MMDA elections because, as we saw, the law says that we shouldn’t use any symbols, but they beat the system by design.

They didn’t use any symbols, but I mean, they used the colours in a way that you cannot fault them because it’s design work. So it is important the law is amended in order to remove grey areas to prevent these things from happening,” he said, suggesting that in future MMDA elections, “all posters must come in black and white.” This, he said, will remove any links to the NPP, NDC, CPP, and other political parties.

According to the collected data, 30 of the posters were designed in NPP colours, 28 in NDC, 20 had the Ghana flag, which was categorised as “National”, as well as 32 posters which did not follow any colour pattern, hence categorised as “Undefined.”

The selected areas included Ga East (Agbogba, Abokobi, Taifa) Ayawaso West, as well as the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.

The event, which was organised by the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Development (DRD), the research department of GIJ, is the second of its kind.

In attendance were colleague lecturers from the Journalism and Media Studies Faculty, journalists, as well as the GJA President, Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, who reiterated his unflinching support for the school during his tenure.