Tamale, Dec 23, GNA - The Paramount Chief of the Sissala Traditional Area, Kuoro Badu Kanton, has appealed to the government to give adequate funding to traditional institutions to enhance the development of democracy in the country.

Speaking at a National Governance workshop in Tamale on Monday, he said traditional institutions had for a long time practised democratic rule in Africa before Western democracy was introduced.

The workshop, the sixth in a series funded by the government and its development partners was on the theme: "Funding independent democratic governance institutions of state for national development."

Mr David Kangah Deputy Commissioner of the Electoral Commission said the EC was handicapped in its capacity to operate efficiently because of inadequate transportation and other logistics. He said most often the government had not been able to meet the Commission's budgetary requests.

Mr Franklin Asamoah-Mensah, Deputy UNDP Resident Representative in Ghana said the objective of the organisation was to support countries towards the attainment of sustainable human development. He said the UNDP was supporting the country in the areas of poverty reduction, protection of the environment, private sector development, prevention of HIV/AIDS and Communication and Information Technology for Development.

Mr Asamoah-Mensah said for all these investments to bear fruits, "there must be good, efficient and human-centred democratic governance. He said the UNDP would continue to provide support to capacity building for the independent governance institutions of state (IGIS) and also provide assistance to advocacy and policy dialogue. Mr Charles Bintim, Deputy Northern Regional Minister said the government was strongly in support of building the capacity of independent organizations to promote and sustain democracy in the country.