Review elections time table
The Chairman of the Gomoa West District Oversight Committee of the APRM, Dr Mark Nii Lamptey, has stressed the need for the review of the country’s electoral time table.
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He said Articles 63(2) and 112(4) of the Constitution stipulate that presidential and parliamentary elections be conducted not earlier than four months and not later than one month before the expiry of the term of office of the president.
Mr Appiah said this at a ceremony in which pensioners from the Gomoa West District were feted as part of the Republic Day celebration at Apam in the Central Region.
The occasion which was sponsored by the Apam Lake Lane Restaurant in collaboration with the Gomoa West District Oversight Committee of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), was also to introduce the new management of the restaurant to the people.
He, therefore, proposed the filing of presidential nominations on September 7, while the elections took place on October 7. Then, should there a re-run, this could be held on October 28, that is 21 days after the said elections by law.
In the event of any electoral dispute, he said, the Supreme Court would have the time to sit over it before the new president is installed on January 7.
Dr Lamptey cited the conditions that necessitated the Tain polls in the 2008 elections and the present electoral petition before the Supreme Court.
He called for a public debate on the proposals he had made.
The Chairman of the Gomoa West Branch of the Ghana Government Pensioners Association, Mr Jimmy Appiah, bemoaned what he described, as the paltry allowances paid to pensioners.
According to him, some pensioners received as low as GH¢ 20 a month, a situation which did not make them live in dignity.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to address their salary concerns and help them to lead decent lives.
Mr Appiah regretted that pensioners who had sacrificed to make the country better were not being duly appreciated.
Again, he said, some pensioners did not benefit from any upward salary adjustment that workers in active service enjoyed, adding that many of them lived miserable lives.
The Manager of the Lake Lane Restaurant, Mr Godson Ewool, who also chaired the function, appealed to the public to patronise the facility.
