November 7 not done deal
‘And let us not be weary in doing well. For in due season, we shall reap if we faint not.’ Galatians 6:9
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Many Ghanaians are talking about the holding of this year’s general election as if the November 7 date is a done deal. That would have been so if the presidential and parliamentary elections were to be held on different days. But as it is with the constitution, the holding of the parliamentary poll is constrained by law.
Article 112 (4) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana provides that,” Subject to clause (2) of Article 113 of this constitution, a general election of Members of Parliament shall be held within 30 days before the expiration of the period specified in clause (1) of that article; and a session of Parliament shall be appointed to commence within 14 days after the expiration of that period.
Article 113 (1) states that Parliament shall continue for four years from the date of its first sitting and shall then stand dissolved.
Thankfully, Article 112(4) is not an entrenched provision, which means that it is not difficult to amend that provision to enable us to hold the parliamentary election earlier than the prescribed 30 days for the existing Parliament to be dissolved.
However, the constitution has prescribed the manner in which amendments could be effected, whether entrenched or non-entrenched. Article 289 provides that subject to the provisions of the constitution, Parliament may, by an Act of Parliament, amend any provision of the constitution but that the constitution shall not be amended by an Act of Parliament or altered whether directly or indirectly unless the sole purpose of the Act is to amend the constitution and the Act has been passed in accordance with Chapter 25 on amendment of the constitution. It then distinguishes between amending an entrenched provision and a non-entrenched provision.
Article 291 provides the basis for amending a non-entrenched provision. It provides that “A bill to amend a provision of this constitution which is not an entrenched provision shall not be introduced into Parliament unless a) it has been published twice in the Gazette, with the second publication being made three months after the first; and b) at least 10 days have passed after the second publication.
The article enjoins the Speaker of Parliament mandatorily to refer the bill to the Council of State, after the first reading of the bill in Parliament and the Council of State has a corresponding duty to render advice on the bill within 30 days after receiving it. Where Parliament approves of the bill, “it may only be presented to the President for his assent if it was approved at the second and third readings of it in Parliament by votes of at least two-thirds of all members of Parliament.”
We are in March and, apart from information that some people are suggesting that the Electoral Commission must consider holding general elections on the first Monday of November in an election year, nothing much has been heard about the preparations being made to amend the law to enable us to hold the parliamentary elections outside the constitutionally prescribed days. It is imperative that if the Electoral Commission has taken any initiative towards that purpose, then that must be diffused to the people even to saturation point. This is important because we are in a country where political parties allege that other parties sometimes deceive the people that certain dates are for certain candidates or parties.
November appears far, but we should not forget that we cannot do anything beyond what the constitution says must be done. Thus, assuming the proposals are submitted this month and published immediately, it will have to be gazetted again in about June. Depending on the date of publication, 10 days must pass before the bill could be legally introduced in the House.
After the first reading, the Speaker must refer the bill to the Council of State which has at least a month to proffer any advice before Parliament could proceed with the second and third readings. That means we may have the constitutional provision amended for the change in date around August at the earliest. That will leave September and October for public education on the new date for the election.
Some people get overly excited when mention is made of the fact that the Electoral Commission does not seem ready for the election as announced. Whatever it is, the commission must assure us that it has done whatever must be done to get the necessary changes to the law to allow for the holding of the election on November 7, 2016. The information cannot be a secret shared only by the commission. Therefore, we must be told what is being done in our name.