Municipal councils around the country are currently electing new mayors and deputies, with district councils electing chairpersons and deputies. The new office bearers are being elected by councillors, from existing councillors, and for the councillors! It is democracy but not as we know it!
In many councils what should be an issue about deepening local democracy and governance has become mere politics. In many places most candidates are first being subjected to approval by the PF before running for office, with little internal democracy. And yet these "elections" are but a symptom of a much larger problem! The bigger issue is that our local government model is totally broken.
The current system does not promote accountability because the people have little direct say in what takes place in our councils, let alone who should be the local mayor or where money should be spent. You can create many districts and devolve all the revenue to the local areas, but that will NOT a make a difference as long as you have poor and unresponsive local leadership.
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