campaign

Kumasi, March 23, GNA - Aspiring parliamentary candidates have been advised against making promises in respect of development during their electioneering campaign this year.

Mr Opoku-Agyemang Prempeh, Managing Director of Lakayana Company, a revenue generation and collection firm, who gave the advice, said since the implementation of development projects does not fall under the jurisdiction of Members of Parliament (MPs), it will be wrong to make such pledges as they would not be able to fulfil them.

Mr Prempeh was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on Tuesday on how parliamentary candidates should conduct themselves and their campaigns to ensure a peaceful and successful election this year. He was emphatic that some specific development projects were capital intensive and therefore, the sole responsibility of the central government and the district assemblies but not MPs.

Mr Prempeh said MPs are legislators and since aspiring parliamentarians were seeking to be elected, their focus on their campaigns should therefore, be on the sort of contributions they could make in enacting laws that will facilitate development and peace in the area when elected.

Touching on the MPs common fund, Mr Prempeh said the fund does not make MPs the legitimate developers of communities.

In any case, he pointed out, the amount is so meagre that it could not be used for any major development project, explaining, "it is only meant to be used by the MPs to complement efforts of the central government and district assemblies in the development of their constituents".

Mr Prempeh also stressed the need for the aspiring parliamentary candidates to avoid the use of indecent language and attacks on political opponents on their campaign platforms since that does not augur well for democracy.