The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is calling for current and future presidents in Ghana to be stripped of their powers in appointing Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to help curb the winner takes all system of governance.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion on dealing with the phenomenon, a senior research fellow for the IEA Dr. Ransford Gyampo said the current arrangement that empowers the president to appoint MMDCEs gives both executive and grassroots powers to the president, thus making grassroot officials subject to the central government.

He is recommending direct election of all MMDA members on full scale partisan basis.

“There should be direct elections of all MMDA members on a full scale partisan basis in order to let the local people feel that we contested an election, we lost miserably but we still have an opportunity to elect whoever will govern us at the grassroots.

“I think that will soothe the pain that will [not] make our politics do-or-die…. The feeling that you have lost everything at the national level and knowing that it’s same at the local level will make politics a do-or-die affair,” Dr. Gyampo noted.

Meanwhile, a former diplomat and elder statesman K B Asante on his part charged Ghanaians to critically examine the competence of people they elect into office.