‘Include antidotes to insecurity, others in constitutional review’
A Senior Research Fellow of the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), a policy research and advocacy organisation, Dr Kwesi Jonah, has stated that the current form of the constitution review document will not help reduce the tension and the threat to the stability of the country that have characterised recent elections.
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He pointed out that the solutions to the threat to unity, stability and security in the country, which was evident during and after the 2008 and 2012 elections, were absent in the proposed document, and called for urgent steps to factor those antidotes into the document.
Dr Jonah was speaking on the theme, “Urgency of Constitutional Amendment”, at the first in the series of the National Interest Dialogue on the Multi-Party Governance and Constitutional Reforms in Kumasi yesterday.
The programme was to solicit views and support for the constitution review/amendment process that would change the winner-takes-all political system that tended to raise tempers in the country, leading to apathy on the part of the ‘losers’.
Dr Jonah said successive elections had clearly brought to the fore how equally and sharply the country was divided along the lines of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Dr Akwetey
The Executive Director of IDEG, Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, said the proposed amendments, in their current form, would not completely help deal with the basic issues that necessitated the amendment of the constitution.
He said fortunately, the hybrid system of governance, which blended the presidential and parliamentary systems, had worked for the country, at least for the last 22 years, and needed to be strengthened to make room for checks and balances.
Solution to winner-takes-all
Dr Akwetey said the 2008 and 2012 elections accentuated the strong cravings of the two main political parties to annex power at all cost, a situation that almost led to great intolerance on their part.
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Dr Akwetey proposed the election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives on political party lines, a move that, he contended, would give other political parties a stake and a role, at least, in governance at the district level.
He also advocated among other things that that a period should be set aside for political activities, so that the country and its political leaders would have some breathing space to plan and execute policies and programmes for the development of the country.