The Speaker of Parliament has expressed his concern over the excessive powers allocated to the executive in the 1992 Constitution.
The executive president, he said, wields too much power, which adversely affects the progress of the country.
During a press soiree with journalists in the Volta Region to reflect on the current dynamics of the country’s democracy, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin called for the amendment of the Constitution.
He, however, stated that reducing the powers of the President through an amendment would require a holistic effort. This is because it is part of the entrenched provision of the Constitution and cannot be amended by Parliament alone.
The Speaker highlighted that the framers of the Constitution decided to preserve some of the provisions, unfortunately, some of these are the provisions that were preserved. Therefore, they can only be amended through a referendum, where the people have the power to change them.
The Speaker also expressed his disappointment over how a move by the late President John Evans Attah Mills to have the provision amended stalled due to a lack of consensus from the two leading political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“You recall during the time of the late President J.E.A Mills, the process was started. One of the challenges that we had was that they said it shouldn’t have been initiated by the government, with the white paper issue, which meant that we were taking entrenched positions. And so, the other party did not support it. And really as I said you need a certain percentage of voters. If you don’t get the parties working together, you can’t have that exercise”, he explained.
Mr. Bagbin, however, indicated that efforts are underway to initiate a move to amend the entrenched provision that allocates the President “too much power”, and is optimistic it could take effect after the 2024 general elections.
He also lamented the inability of the Legislative and the media to effectively deliver their accountability roles due to the lack of funds and unfavorable working conditions.
He called on the media front to stand up and fight for their rights and advocate for better working conditions, to enable them to diligently deliver their roles to ensure effective governance.