Nkwanta (C/R), Sept. 6, GNA -- Mr Robert Quainoo-Arthur, Mfantseman District Chief Executive, has advised candidates of the up-coming district level election to be conversant with Act 462, which establishes the district assembly concept, to help them to avoid making promises to the electorate that they cannot fulfil.

The DCE reminded that unlike members of Parliament, who were allocated some share of the District Assemblies' Common Fund to fund some projects in their constituencies, district assembly members did not have such privileges.

He was speaking at a durbar organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), on gender streamlining on district assembly elections at Nkwanta, near Mankessim in the Central Region. The durbar was to sensitise female contestants in the district on campaign strategies.

Mr Quainoo-Arthur cautioned them against the use of gifts to influence the electorate, since it could weaken their campaign strategy. =93You will be tempted to believe that the gifts will do the trick and relax in your effort to convince the electorate on what you are capable of doing when elected,=94 the DCE stated.

Mrs Auguatina Akosua Akomanyi, Deputy Chairperson of the NCCE, explained that the collaboration between UNDP and the Commission in the campaign to get more women into the assemblies was in fulfilment of the recommendations of the African Peer Review Mechanism, which urged the government to involve more women in local governance.

Mrs Akomanyi said women could fight for better planning of functional development projects when they got to the assembly, because they used them most.

She cautioned, however, that the Commission's campaign for women was not meant to 'push just any woman to the assemblies'. She commended the District for presenting 26 women, being the highest in the country, to contest the election.

Mr Frank Adobah, Central Regional Director of the Commission, urged women to promote accountability in their areas when elected, since that was the surest way of removing ignorance, suspicion, rumour mongering and agitation, saying accountability encouraged participation in communal activities.

Miss Mary Margaret Sackey, Mfantseman District Director, NCCE, appealed to the assemblies to provide the confidence that would make unit committees functional since they form the bedrocks of the assembly concept.