A Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Raymond Atuguba, has suggested the holding of general election before December 7 to allow for more time for the handing over of government. He said the Electoral Commission (EC) was not bound by law to hold the elections on December 7, pointing out that the Commission could fix an earlier date as it deemed appropriate to perform that task. Dr Atuguba was sharing his thoughts with the Daily Graphic on the brevity of the transition period for handing over government. Article 63 (2) of the 1992 Constitution provides that "The election of the President shall be on the terms of universal adult suffrage and shall, subject to the provisions of this Constitution, be conducted in accordance with such regulations as may be prescribed by constitutional instrument by the Electoral Commission and shall be held so as to begin – (a) where a President is in office, not earlier than four months nor later than one month before his term of office expires; and (b) in any other case, within three months after the office of President become vacant; and shall be held at such a place and shall begin on such a date as the Electoral Commission shall, by constitutional instrument, specify.” Dr Atuguba contended that by proper interpretation of that constitutional provision, the EC was not bound to hold the elections exactly one month before the handing over of government on January 7 and so it was possible to hold elections before December 7. His contention is informed by the popular view that in the event of a presidential run-off, there is a very short period left for the transfer of power. However, holding elections earlier than December 7 creates a constitutional dilemma in view of the requirement for parliamentary elections to be held not earlier than 30 days before the handing over date of January 7. That was the basis for conducting the 1992 presidential and parliamentary elections on separate dates, but the problems associated with that process, such as voter apathy after the presidential election and the subsequent boycott of the parliamentary election by the NPP that year, must have influenced the EC to combine both elections on the same date. Dr Atuguba said Ghana had to take a cue from the American system which, for instance, ensured enough time for communication between the outgoing government and the incoming one on critical national issues such as security and finance. "I think our democracy has matured enough for that to happen, whether the handing over is from the NPP to the NPP or the NPP to the NDC," he noted. Dr Atuguba made reference to a Presidential Transition Bill drafted by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) to help regulate and streamline the transition process. He, however, pointed out that it was better for the incoming and the outgoing administrations to sit down and discuss issues, considering the nature of such issues, instead of legislating the process. Contributing to the subject, the Administrator of the IEA, Mrs Jean Mensa, underlined the need to amend the Constitution to allow elections to be held in November, so that in case of a run-off there would still be enough time to hand over. She disagreed with the assertion that providing legislation for the transition process was not the best, arguing that it was important to have a laid-down procedure to guide the process to avoid the situation where things would be done any how. Mrs Mensa made reference to instances when Ambassadors were immediately recalled from their missions and public officials asked to proceed on leave after a change in government, pointing out that legislation on the transition process would check those practices. Expressing a contrasting view on the matter, the Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance, Ghana (IDEG), Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, said the issue to consider was not the length of the transitional period but how prepared the outgoing and the incoming governments were for the transfer of power. He said this was not the first time a presidential election was going into a run-off, indicating that the first experience in 2000 should give a signal to the contesting political parties of such a possibility, for which reason they ought to have prepared adequately for the transfer of office. Dr Akwetey said in 1996 and 2004 when former President Rawlings and President Kufuor won second terms in office, respectively, it took them a long time, even as sitting Presidents, to name their Cabinet and so the issue was not about the length of time but good preparation. He said whereas the government in power needed to start preparations for it to hand over early, the opposition party, confident of winning an election, should also be forward-looking and plan accordingly. Dr Akwetey said the concerns of many people were over the fact that the two run-offs so far had come at a time when there was the likelihood of a change from one ruling party to another. He said if the election had not gone into a run-off, such concerns would not have emerged. He said it was too early to call for a constitutional amendment to change the election date because there was the need to have an experience of a change of government from one political party to another in an election that would not go into a second round. Although the Programme Co-coordinator at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Mr John Larvie shares in the call for an extension of the transition period, he admits it is a constitutional issue that has to be dealt with. "It's a critical situation but the difficulty must be handled," he said. Source: Daily Graphic