Eyram Bashan speaking at the event.
Election Community of Practice and Learning (ECPOL), a civil society organization, has called on the government of Ghana to officially declare the status of the implementation of the recommendations made by the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) in 2010.
According to the group, although government accepted 90 per cent of the CRC recommendations through the issuance of the White Paper in June 2012, there has been no clear roadmap for its implementation.
The National Democratic Congress headed by Former President John Mahama, was in power in 2012.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, Eyram Bashan, convenor of the group, acknowledged the steps government has taken over the years to fine-tune the Constitution in order to advance the key democratic gains made since the return of constitutional rule.
“From our checks, we have noted that following the formation of the implementation committee, a constitutional amendment bill was prepared by government. We are interested in knowing what happened to the Bill,” she said.
“We have taken cognizance of government demonstrable political will to see through only one of the recommendations which is the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs),” the convenor added.
Mrs. Bashan said although government has taken these steps there are many areas of the constitution and of constitutional practice that needed to change.
She said for instance, the constitutional provision for the appointment of heads of security agencies by the President needs to be amended to truly make them independent of the influence of the executive.
She thus called on President Akufo-Addo to ensure that the Constitution is amended holistically, inclusively and transparently in accordance with the aspirations of Ghanaians.
“There is no clear or detailed implementation action plan of which Ghanaians can hold government accountable. We are extremely concerned that the $6.3 million spent on the exercise will be yet another waste of scarce resources if the process is not revived and sustained,” she said.
Given the high partisan nature of governance in Ghana, the Constitution review process requires a strong collective involvement of civil society actors that was interesting activities void of the usual political and in the interests of the state and citizens,” she added.
Mrs. Bashan noted that the society will be undertaking a high level stakeholder dialogue on the status of the implementation of the recommendations to revive national interest in the constitutional review process .
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri