Some Of The Political Leaders At The National Thanksgiving Service
The Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has congratulated Ghanaians on the occasion of the celebration of the Silver Jubilee Anniversary of the Fourth Republic.
“We applaud successive administrations and political actors, including the various political parties, and indeed the entire Ghanaian citizenry for keeping faith with the 1992 Constitution, which ushered in the Fourth Republic and has undergirded our democratic governance system and practices in the last quarter of a century,” it said.
The CDD-Ghana said this in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Sunday when it joined the people to mark the 25th Anniversary of Fourth Republic.
It noted with great pride and overall satisfaction the successful conclusion of seven multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections, producing three electoral turnovers in this Republic.
The statement said: “We are also happy with the prevalence of peace and unity in the country, as well as the growing levels of economic and social development, broadly speaking.”
“Despite delivery of considerable voice to the citizenry under the Fourth Republic; public corruption remained pervasive; progress of the constitutionally-mandated political, administrative and fiscal decentralisation has stalled, and the economy has been characterised by joblessness,” it said.
The statement said: “Income and spatial inequality are on the rise in spite of poverty reduction, and the nation’s two main political parties, which have alternated in power in the Fourth Republic, have increasingly taken on the features of rival cults, whose primary purpose seemingly is to win elections, achieve ‘state capture’ and practice ‘winner-takes-all politics.”
“We are particularly concerned about the failure on the part of successive governments and majority parties to address the well-known gaps and deficiencies in the 1992 Constitution such as overconcentration of legal and constitutional power in the hands of the executive branch in general, especially the presidency and indirectly, the governing political party,” it said.
The statement said “while the CDD-Ghana deservingly celebrate the country’s longest running constitutional order since independence, we must also pause to reflect on the things we must do to consolidate and deepen the gains made possible by the Fourth Republican Constitution.
“The list is long, but we can start by passing the 17-year-old Right to Information Bill and reforming the public office-holder asset disclosure regime to promote governmental transparency and accountability, as well as curb corruption in the public sector.
“In the medium to long term, we must amend the law and Constitution to strengthen Parliament’s ability to oversight the executive in order to promote effective checks and balances; inject meritocratic selection and fiduciary accountability into the governance of the state corporate sector and allow for popular election of district mayors to promote local government decentralisation and effectiveness,” the statement said.
It said those reforms were needed for the country to achieve the government’s grand goal of a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid.’
GNA