Signals picked up within the party indicate that one of the aspirants, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, could be ‘nursing plans of picking her husband, ex-President J. J. Rawlings, as her running mate should the results of the congress favour her. Although the 1992 Constitution debars Mr. Rawlings from becoming President, having completed his two-four year term as president, it is still uncertain whether or not he could be become Vice President.
But Mr. Ace Ankomah, an Accra-based legal practitioner, has said that ex-President Rawlings cannot be Vice-President of Ghana under any circumstance. He told the Enquirer newspaper in an interview “I have formed the view that a president who has served two terms is barred, not only from becoming President again, but from becoming Vice President of the Republic… It appears to me that the clear and obvious intention of the framers of the constitution is that an ex-President, who has served two terms, cannot occupy the office of President again, under any circumstance.”
Admitting that he does not have a direct evidence of the politics that lies behind the move, he has said that it was necessary that we require some attempts at understanding what the framers of the Constitution meant by Article 60, 66(2) and 68 (2).
The Accra-based legal practitioner indicated that Article 66(2), bars a person from being “elected to hold office as President of Ghana for more than two terms,” adding that “Article 68 (2) bars all ex-Presidents from holding any office of profit or emolument upon leaving office as President, except where Parliament approves of it “in any establishment, either directly or indirectly, other than that of the State.
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