By Love Wilhelmina Abanonave
President John Mahama has announced that a Constitutional Review Implementation Committee, will be inaugurated to synthesize government’s position and those contained in the Constitution Review Commission’s, (CRC) report. Proposed amendments will be sent to Parliament to be voted on. Entrenched clauses which can only be amended by referendum, will be voted on, in a National Referendum to be conducted during the next District Assembly elections.
According to President Mahama the Committee’s mandate will be to harmonize the two key documents; the government’s position paper and the CRC report. Proposed Non-entrenched clauses in the 1992 Constitution will need Parliamentary approval. However proposed changes to the entrenched clauses require a very high threshold to be met in a national referendum.
“Entrenched clauses require that we conduct a referendum and at least 40% of registered voters must vote and 75% of them must say yes,” President Mahama stated during his resetting Ghana tour in the Upper East Region today.
The President disclosed that the government intends to combine the constitutional referendum with the District Assembly elections scheduled for next year to save cost and increase voter turnout.
“We want to add that to the district Assembly’s election next year. So, apart from voting for your assembly members, you will also be required to vote on the Constitutional Amendment. And if we vote and it passes, then we will implement the amended entrenched clauses.”
The Constitution Review Commission was set up to gather public views and recommend amendments to the 1992 Constitution. Government later produced its own position paper in response to the CRC report. The decision to split amendments into “entrenched” and “non-entrenched” is in line with provisions in the current Constitution. Entrenched provisions include those on fundamental human rights, the amendment process itself, and key governance structures, and thus require a referendum. Non-entrenched provisions can be amended by an Act of Parliament supported by the votes of at least two-thirds of all members of Parliament.
