THE launch of the first Democracy Consolidation Strategy Paper (DCSP) in Accra to address the gaps and shortcomings in the country’s democracy is very timely.
Launched last Wednesday, the comprehensive historical document, an initiative of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Ghana Political Parties (GPP), among other organisations, seeks to analyse the challenges of Ghana’s democratic practice since the inception of the 1992 Constitution. It proposes practical reforms in the micro-political environment by examining the Constitution, the political parties and the electoral system.
It also seeks to examine the governance agenda of the country, covering decentralisation, anti-corruption, human rights, media independence, the role of women and the youth in governance, the legislative framework for governance involving how to make Parliament effective, judicial independence and the justice system, civil society participation in public policy formulation, implementation and monitoring.
We doff our hats for the IEA and the GPP initiative because it will go a long way in contributing to the nurturing and stabilisation of democracy in the country. It is refreshing that since the early 1990s the IEA has played a very pivotal role in the promotion of the growth of a democratic society in which the rights of every individual will be guaranteed.
But we must state categorically that this document can only benefit society if the challenges highlighted are addressed by the Ghanaian society. The major challenges include having majority of ministers from Parliament, the crisis that will unfold should a Vice-President defect from a ruling government and the constitutional ceiling on the number of ministerial appointees.
Other issues have to do with the indemnity clause for past presidents who came to power through coups d’etat and those who worked with them, as well as the decoupling of the office of the Attorney-General from that the Minister of Justice. Another challenge which was identified is the absence of a cap on the number of Supreme Court judges.
In other discussions, some analysts have pointed to the fact that the present tenure of four years for both the President and Parliament is inadequate to enable the Executive and the Legislature to implement their programmes and instead they have proposed a five or seven-year tenure.
These issues, undoubtedly, are being raised now in good faith, with the view to finding permanent solutions to them. As Ghana moves on to consolidate the practice of democracy, it is important that the identified challenges and bottlenecks are thoroughly debated in a non-partisan manner in order to make a giant leap forward in our development endeavours.
The Daily Graphic is aware that some chiefs and students of politics have questioned the decision to ban chiefs from engaging in active partisan politics. We, therefore, think it is only fair that the role to be played by chiefs and traditional rulers in contemporary politics is also be reviewed.
Society is dynamic, and so is the Ghanaian society. Since 1993, Ghana has remained recognisably democratic. Nonetheless, certain provisions in the Constitution must be amended to enable the people to look into the future with a positive outlook.
We believe that Ghana can develop and entrench its democracy if we implement the recommendations in the document. The DCSP must be seen as a positive signal to simplify the Constitution into a more functional document to provide the necessary guidance to offer hope and inspiration to the people.
The Daily Graphic calls for constructive engagements with all interest groups in order to make Ghanaians owners of the final document.
We also call on the Executive and Parliament to scrutinise the document and initiate broad consultations to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations in it to deepen and consolidate multi-party democracy in the country.
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