Electing DCE�s Will Fuel Political Abuses And Tension - Obed Asamoah

A former Minister of Justice and Attorney General and now the life patron of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), Dr. Yao Obed Asamoah, believes that the introduction of party politics into the assembly system will not help the country, but would rather increase the abuses and risk involved in elections. �We all know already the abuses and risk involved in national election�, he added. He said, such an act would just be compounding problems for the county. The government is to submit proposals to the Constitutional Review Commission on the election of District Chief Executives (DCEs), an issue which has generated a lot of interest. He also suggested that the election date should be changed to give more room for the transition period. According to him, the Constitutional Review Committee should consider the suggestion and amend the constitution appropriately. He said, most Ghanaians had discovered that there was very little time for the incoming government to sit down and sort itself out. �That particular aspect of the Constitution should be amended�, he stated, apparently referring to the situations where there is much difficulty when there has to be a second round as experienced recently in the 2008 elections. He said the electoral commission�s hands are tied and as such they can�t hold elections earlier than the time they have been holding elections. Acknowledging that it was in the right direction for a review of the 1992 constitution, he said a review of the indemnity clause would further heighten political tension in the country, as people who suffered various degrees of violations prior to the enactment of the 1992 constitution, would be up in arms against perceived perpetrators. The Clause is there to shield the coup makers, and if it is amended, it would allow people to take action against others, which would eventually create tension in the country�, he said. However, Dr. Obed Asamoah, also a lawyer who was pivotal in the drafting of the 1992 constitution, argued that in fighting corruption, the Attorney-General�s department should be de-coupled from the Ministry of Justice. �I believe that, that will be one area in which the review has to be done. That will involve amending article 88 of the Constitution�, he said. He warned that �we have to be very careful not to write just anything into a Constitution or else we will find ourselves in a fix in so many situations. We should leave room for conventions and for interpretations by the court to fill in the lacuna. Where you have the situation where you write everything into a constitution � then you create difficulties for yourself�, he added.