The Member of Parliament for Ablekuma South, Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, has rekindled the debate on the duration of the presidential term of office by proposing a non-renewable term of six years.
According to him, the current four-year term, renewable for another four, has serious disadvantages as programmes and policies are not properly executed by the sitting president.
The extension of the presidential term has been proposed by several governance experts including former President John Agyekum Kufuor.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday 7 March, the former mayor of Accra urged legislators to consider amending the four-year tenure to six.
“There is the need to vote for a constitutional amendment to increase the tenure of office of the president to a six-year, one term of office. That is, a critical consideration must be given to article 66 (1)(2), which seeks to limit the term of office of government in Ghana for a term of four years unless re-elected for a second term,” he stated.
He noted that the four-year term comes with a cost to the state and should, therefore, be reviewed.
“The term of four years has its obvious consequences. It is a well-known fact that since the propagation of the 1992 constitution, any time a president is elected, time and resources are spent to defend one term of four years. This comes with its associated financial burden on the state. Going by this precedence…the term of office as it exists under the current constitution is woefully insufficient for any government to seriously consider improving the economy. Organising elections every four years is a…drain on the limited state resource,” Mr Vanderpuije stressed.
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