Hundreds of current and former assembly members across all 30 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Ashanti Region have endorsed the New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.
They assert their decision is informed by current economic hardship and mismanagement of state resources by the National Democratic Congress government.
The Local Government Act 462 bars persons contesting for district assembly elections to associate themselves with any political party.
Section 7, subsection 2 of the Act unequivocally cautions, inter alia: ‘a political party shall not endorse, sponsor, offer a platform to or in any other way campaign for or against a candidate seeking election to a District Assembly or to a lower local government unit’.
But addressing the media in Kumasi, Secretary of the group, Emmanuel Asuah Dadzie, stated that their positions do not prevent them from exercising their franchise in electing leaders to govern the country.
“We have the right to join or support any political party whose vision and ideas are tailored towards job creation, eradication of poverty, and more importantly reducing the economic hardships of the ordinary citizen even if such supports are not within the confines of our respective Assemblies,” he said.
The assembly members say their declaration of support for Nana Addo is centered on “two significant commitments” the NPP has made in its 2016 Manifesto which they believe will truncate corrupt leadership, lead to economic independence and total transformation of Ghana’s infrastructure landscape.
They added the party’s One-District-One-Factory and the one million-dollar for each constituency policies would improve the revenue mobilization of MMDAs to be financially independent to drive local development.
“We call on all people who have Ghana at heart to support and campaign for Nana Addo for one-touch victory in the December polls,” they said.
The former and current assembly members would be campaigning for the NPP’s presidential candidate despite holding non-partisan positions.
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