A former presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Brigitte Dzogbenuku, has disclosed that the 1992 Constitution cannot sustain Ghana’s democracy in the near future, especially due to its “winner takes all” element.
According to her, when winning political parties are left in charge of the country, it threatens the country’s stability. She indicated that the current constitution has created a situation where the winning political parties have treated the republic as a colony to be conquered and its resources taken for the welfare of a few privileged members of the party in power.
This, she explained, makes subjects of the citizenry and deprives most Ghanaians the dividends of a well-constituted democratic state.
“The stability of the country is threatened by the sheer greed, elite capture and an intensely exclusionary political system where citizenship is no longer enough requirement to have access to state resources and to partake in the sharing of the national cake… This winner-takes-all 1992 Constitution cannot sustain our democracy beyond the near future and therefore there is the urgent need to implement the following fundamental constitutional amendments.”
Brigitte Dzogbenuku
The former PPP presidential candidate stated that it is unfortunate that a citizen must necessarily require membership of the party in power to benefit from the welfare state. Among other things, she proposed five amendments she reckoned are critical to help the nation in the future.
To this end, Madam Dzogbenuku expressed the need for the separation of MPs from ministers, indicating that members of parliament should not be appointed as ministers. She highlighted that in case an MP is appointed Minister, they have to resign from parliament.
Additionally, she proposed that the Attorney-General be independent of the government and removed from the Ministry of Justice.
“This is the only way to realistically fight corruption. So, we are calling for a truly Independent Attorney General that is an Independent Public Prosecutor, whose budget will be sanctioned by parliament without any ministerial interference.”
Brigitte Dzogbenuku
Subsequently, Madam Dzogbenuku called for a new Assets Declaration regime where the completed forms by all public officials are published and can be accessed by any interested citizen for verification.
Amendment of 1992 Constitution
On his part, former Chairman of Parliament’s Legal and Constitutional Committee, Inusah Fuseini, stated that the lack of consensus between Ghana’s two major political parties in parliament has had negative impacts on attempts to amend certain portions of the 1992 Constitution.
Commenting on calls to amend the constitutional provision stipulating how Electoral Commissioners are appointed, Mr Fuseini revealed that parliament has failed to amend the provision to include the House in the process due to a lack of consensus.
He underscored that the Electoral Commission must be elected by the President on the advice of the Public Services Commission with prior approval of parliament by a two–third’s majority, however, this amendment has failed to pass through parliament.
“The Electoral Commission is a public office. The appointment by the president on the advice of the Council of State has resulted in trust deficit in the Electoral Commission. I believe that we can cure this, and we should cure it by amending Article 43 of the Constitution, to read that the Electoral Commission shall be appointed by the president on the advice of the Public Services Commission with the prior approval of parliament by a two-third majority.
“The two-third majority requirement (if) inserted, by my proposal, will also ensure that we have a bipartisan consensus in parliament. Lack of bipartisan consensus has been the bane of the attempted or aborted amendments that have come before parliament.”
Inusah Fuseini,
Prior to this, the former Tamale Central legislator called for the complete deletion of Article 71 from the constitution.
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