Presidential Transition Bill launched

Spread (Daily Graphic) December 18/2008

Story: Kobby Asmah & Charles Benoni Okine

The Presidential Transition Bill, 2008, which aims at further deepening and consolidating multiparty democracy in Ghana has been launched in Accra.
The bill, among other issues, seeks to establish a durable and harmonious way of transferring political authority from one constitutionally elected government to another, as well as forge national cohesion, lower the political tension and promote inter-party co-operation.
The bill, which is a product of an elaborate consultative process of study, findings, recommendations, discussions, validation and re-drafting, will also help to regulate and streamline the transition process.
The bill is a one-and-a half year collaborative effort of a multipartisan group made up of members of the Institute of Economic Affairs, in collaboration with the Ghana Political Parties Programme (GPPP), an inter consultative group comprising the four political parties with representation in Parliament — New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress, People’s National Convention and the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
The bill also takes a cue from the political transition in 2001, which represented a political first in the history of post-independent Ghana, where political power was transferred from one political party to a different political party.
The General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Reverend Dr Mensah Otabil, who launched the 28-page document, said; “We need a law on political transitions in this country to define the dos and don’ts for both the outgoing and incoming Presidents.”
The law, he said, was to address for instance, which public officials enter government and leave with the President; How are the handover arrangements on January 7 to be handled; and When is the new Speaker of Parliament to be elected.
Rev Otabil said the law would also bring to the fore how the country could ensure that the new President’s swearing-in ceremony was not unduly delayed, as well as how the country could ensure that Presidential preferences did not become an undue burden on the taxpayer.
He recounted the transition periods before the Fourth Republic and said those transition periods had mostly taken the form of unconstitutional interruptions in the governance arrangements of the country.
“Thankfully, under this current republic, we have had three smooth transitions; even then, two of those transitions have been from one President to himself and, therefore, have not been dogged by any difficulties,” he said.
Reverend Otabil observed that the 2001 transition from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), however, presented a real challenge, noting that “it was not the smoothest transitions”.
“Research has shown that, that transition has been partly responsible for the extreme polarisation of the Ghanaian society today,” he added.
Prof. Adzei Bekoe, Chairman of the Council of State, in a remark observed that whenever there was a run-off, the time left to declare results and the transition period was not enough to ensure a smooth exercise.
He said there were a lot of work to be done during the transitional process, which required clear ground rules and procedures and, therefore, expressed the hope that the bill would be a useful document for the consideration by the Cabinet and Parliament.
The Chairman of the NPP, Mr Peter Mac Manu, said the NPP believed in the quest to deepen democracy in the country and was gratified that through the launch of the bill, Ghana’s democracy was moving forward.
The bill, he said, would serve as a very good starting point and commended IEA for their bold effort in initiating the document.
Mr Alex Segbefia, who represented the NDC, said the bill gave credence to the fact that “we are capable of managing our own affairs”.
He described the bill as a useful guideline that the NDC could work with, saying “it is good that change is taking place so that we can move forward”.
A statement read for the Chairman of the PNC, Alhaji Ramadan, indicated that the PNC was proud to be associated with the launch of the bill and expressed the hope that the incoming Parliament would look at the issues raised and approve them to help future transitions.
Mr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, General Secretary of the CPP, recalled that the first transition in 2001 recorded some teething problems because there were no precedent to guide them.
He said if elections were held early in November, it would help to ensure smooth transition and called for a constitutional review to amend the date of election from December 7 to November 7.
Brigadier General Francis Agyemfra (Retd), Head of the Governance Unit of the IEA, in his welcoming address said; “Since the Fourth Republic, ushered in on January 7, 1993, Ghana can be said to have succeeded in establishing functional multiparty democracy which is said to be gaining roots; and the concept that governments will continue to change through elections has gained wide acceptance.”
He said the draft transitional bill had evolved an elaborate consultative process of study, findings, recommendations, drafting, validation and redrafting for more than a year and half.