The Member of Parliament for Odododiodio, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has raised concerns about the state of partisan politics in Ghana and its impact on local governance. During his appearance on The Big Issue on Citi TV, he emphasized the need for greater decentralization and less political interference in communities.
“Our politics have been so divisive and discriminatory,” Vanderpuye stated, adding, “our partisan politics have become so divisive and so strong that even at that level, let me tell you, some of my party supporters were not happy that during the COVID time, I was given relief items given to me as a Member of Parliament from parliament and from the district assembly’s common fund to all the assembly members and given to the NPP affiliated assembly members”.
This division, according to Vanderpuye, also extends to communal work, with residents often refusing to participate if the organizer belongs to a different political party.
He blamed this disconnect on the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Ministry of Information’s neglect of local elections.
“We have an EC that conducts presidential and parliamentary elections and then goes to sleep. One year six months down the line, before they come from their slumber and remember that we have an assembly election to do. They finish with the assembly elections; they will go to sleep again. Six months to presidential and parliamentary elections before they intensify their activities”.
The member of Parliament added, “Their work is to conduct elections, so the process, all the processes leading up to the conduct of elections in this country must be done and done well so that we don’t have a sort of absolute negligence we had in this district level elections”.
Vanderpuye further criticized the Information Service Department for failing to adequately publicize the district-level elections, leading to low voter turnout and engagement.
