Centre for Social Democracy (CSD-Ghana) has commended the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for its adoption of a more inclusive approach to developing its manifesto.
This, it said, is a clear departure from the usual norm to drafting of manifestos by political parties where committees are tasked to develop proposals with no consultations with stakeholders.
According to the Centre, the opposition party’s innovative approach is a tenet to good governance, which will make its manifesto more responsive to the needs of Ghanaians both home and abroad.
The NDC in a release signed by its Deputy General Secretary has called for inputs from interested groups and Ghanaians into its manifesto for the 2020 elections.
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Though the move has been ridiculed by functionaries of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government as demonstration of the NDC’s lack of ideas, CSD-Ghana has argued differently.
Mr. William Agbodo, a fellow of the Centre, during an interview with GhanaCrusader.com argued the move should logically be a yardstick for voters deciding on the most appropriate candidate in the 2020 elections.
He said, “In as much as democracy allows engagement, participation and inclusiveness, it is only proper that voters put those into consideration to decide who becomes their leader.
Mr. Williams argued that voters, one way or the other, will hold some level of affinity to the leader that seeks and integrates their ideas and needs into the document that will be use to govern them.
CSD-Ghana argued the NDC’s move is in line with social democratic ideology that will empower citizens by giving them a voice and promote inclusiveness and popular participation.
“The Centre observes that this approach is clear a departure from the usual approach to manifesto drafting by political parties in Ghana where they put up manifesto committees to develop their proposals, sometimes, with limited consultations with selected stakeholders.”
“This, CSD-Ghana believes, is partly responsible for the situation where political parties upon election into government are unable to implement some of their manifesto promises because such promises are defective or unworkable,” a release by the Centre said.
It urged the NDC to go beyond receiving proposals from organized groups and individuals and forge closer partnerships with various groups in the process to develop proposals more responsive to the challenges Ghanaians face.
It encouraged Ghanaians and interest groups to take advantage of the opportunity to own the NDC 2020 manifesto by making inputs into it.
