Mr. Kwesi Jonah, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Governance has condemned the proposals for amendments to the 1992 constitution saying, they have failed to live up to expectations of delivering development.
According to Mr Jonah, “the motive for the review of the constitution, as far as the people of Ghana are concerned, is the deepening of democracy not development.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”ydcdNCPOPkTlYq85EY50h9nqTJ5tdZsl”]Mr Jonah was speaking at a programme organised by the Economy of Ghana Network (EGN) and the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) in Accra.
“The whole idea of a developmental constitution was the romantic ideal of the Constitution Review Committee (CRC) and did not in any way impact the end product of the review process, namely the CRC report and the draft amendment bills,” he stated.
The portions of the Draft Bill for amendment that are relevant to the country’s development are those relating to National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) which recommends a constitutionally independent NDPC binding on all successive governments among others.
“The government has decisively and unambiguously rejected some recommendations of the CRC on the role and functions of NDPC.”
Ninety seven (97) changes are expected to be made to the current constitution thus 41 entrenched and 56 non-entrenched provisions.
Mr. Jonah worried that the sheer number of changes proposed makes it impracticable and suggested that the number of entrenched provisions, which require a referendum to pass, be reduced drastically.
He also suggested that the Supreme Court should be consulted to resolve the stalemated Draft Bill caused by uncertainties with Article 290 of the constitution, which provides for the amendment of entrenched clauses.
Some of the proposed amendments include; the replacement of the death penalty with life imprisonment, the swearing in of the president not limited to the Chief Justice in parliament but anywhere by any Justice of the superior court of judicature, and the entrenchment of the rights to food and reasonable sanitation, clean and safe water among others.
Mr. Jonah said the obstacles lie in the path of the amendment of the constitution of which the forthcoming 2016 general election is an inhibitor because of the fear of politicization of the requisite referendums.
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Kwame Botchway/citifmonline.com/Ghana