Justice Anthony Abada, Supervising High Court Judge of Ho, on Thursday, advised Ghanaians \u201cto hasten slowly in tinkering with the 1992 Constitution.\u201d
\nHe cited the Constitution of the United States of America as having had only 30 amendments to its credit, in its 200 years of existence, with the Supreme Court of that country playing a significant role in the workings of that country\u2019s Constitution. Justice Abada was summarizing submissions made at a workshop, organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), as part of the on-going constitutional review process.
\nIt was under the theme, \u201cGiving voice to the voiceless in Ghana\u2019s Constitutional Review.\u201dIssues discussed were, the executive, legislature, judiciary, decentralization and local government, chieftaincy, directive principles of state policy and national elections and related issues.
\nHe said the Supreme Court should have the final say in constitutional and election matters, as currently provided.
\nJustice Abada said the orderly outcome of the 2008 elections in which there was a smooth change of government with just 40,000 votes, won for Ghana, the admiration and respect of the international community and \u201cshows how intelligent and wise we are.\u201dRegarding the Directive Principles of State Policy, Justice Abada aid its application should reflect the peculiar circumstances.
\nWhereas a good number of the participants suggested the extension of the mandate of the President to five yeas, Justice Abada said the current four-year mandate, subject to renewal by re-election should stand, as that would give enough time to the President to prosecute his policies.
\nOn the choice of ministers, he said the President should continue to choose the percentage prescribed by the Constitution from parliament.On the remuneration of members of parliament, he said, it should be attractive so as to get the best potential legislators into parliament, cautioning that, care should be taken so that we do not \u201ccut our nose to spite our face.\u201d
\nJustice Abada observed that, the majority of submissions dwelt on local government, which is an indication of the importance the populace attached to that area of governance.Dr Michael Ofori-Mensah, Policy Analyst of the IEA said it is important that the constitutional review process provides an inclusive strategy to ensure that the disadvantaged sections of society were not either ignored or sidelined in the review process.
\nHe said the constitution has for the last 18 years faced several challenges of interpretation because while some provisions are difficult to interpret and operate, other pertinent issues were not provided for in the constitution, which have complicated the conduct of democratic governance in Ghana.
\nDr. Ofori-Mensah said key areas of the constitution such as the executive, legislature, judiciary and chieftaincy also require re-evaluation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Justice Anthony Abada, Supervising High Court Judge of Ho, on Thursday, advised Ghanaians \u201cto hasten slowly in tinkering with the 1992 Constitution.\u201d He cited the Constitution of the United States of America as having had only 30 amendments to its credit, in its 200 years of existence, with the Supreme Court of that country playing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n