CONDUCT CLEAN CAMPAIGN FOR DISTRICT LEVEL ELECTIONS (PAGE 12, OCT 7, 2010)

THE District Chief Executive (DCE) for Tano South, Mr Bukari Zakari Anaba, has called on all candidates contesting the forthcoming district level election to refrain from the use of divisive language and actions during their campaigns.
He said the district assembly election was not on partisan lines and it behoved all candidates to conduct clean campaign devoid of insults, insinuations and conflict.
“You must respect the views of each other in the conduct of political campaigns,” he stated at the last meeting of the district assembly at Bechem, the district capital.
He reminded all candidates that at the end of the day “we are looking for competent and selfless people who would serve their communities and help push the decentralisation concept further”.
Mr. Anaba said now that the district level election campaign was gathering momentum, there was the tendency for some candidates seeking for election to employ fair or foul means to get elected.
He said there was, therefore, the need to sound this note of caution to ensure that the non-partisan concept did not degenerate into violence that usually characterised elections held on party lines.
Mr Anaba urged all candidates to educate the electorate on the decentralisation concept and to encourage them to show up in their numbers to exercise their franchise on the election day.
Mr Anaba said the assembly’s Internally Generated Fund (IGF) as of August 31, 2010 stood as Gh¢89,186.74 as against a projected figure of Gh¢211,900.00.
He said the assembly also received the first quarter of its share of the District Common Fund (DAFC) of GH¢186,659.72 with the Member of Parliament (MP) Common Fund of Gh¢16,765.10.
“The second quarter for 2010 will be released by October 2010, according to sources at the DAFC Secretariat”, he added.
Mr Anaba disclosed that the assembly through hard work qualified for the 2008 District Development Facility (DDF) Assessment of Functional Organisational Assessment Tool (FOAT) and GH¢433,435.52 had been allocated for development and investment, while Gh¢35,349.56 had also been allocated for capacity building of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).
Touching on the road network in the district, Mr Anaba said about 425 kilometres of feeder roads were under construction at various locations which included Bechem-Breme, Breme-Ahwrewham, Breme-Mansopa, Breme-Ohianimguase-Mansin, and Tuagyenkrom-Asuoso, while 16.5km roads in the district capital was being opened up to enable it to be tarred.
The Tano South DCE said the District Government Hospital at Bechem had also been earmarked to benefit from the government’s infrastructure development and expansion of health facilities.