Majority of Ghanaians who participated in a survey on the review of the 1992 Constitution have stressed the need for a long term national development framework, devoid of partisan politics, that will be mandatory for all governments to adopt and implement. Underlying the importance of a national development planning to sustain an effective development of the country, the respondents also stressed the need for the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to be given a clearer mandate that includes industrial development in each of the 10 regions. The survey was conducted by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) between July 2010 and October 2010 and covered emerging issues from the community and regional consultation workshops on the constitution review organised in all the regions. The findings of the survey, according to the researchers, reflect the opinions of about 1,100 individuals who participated in the consultative workshops on the constitution review process." The research team was led by the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Ocquaye, and a Principal Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Mr Kwamena Ahwoi. According to the respondents, the President has too much power under the Constitution and called for a greater separation of the Executive and the Legislature because the current system, which compelled the President to appoint majority of ministers from Parliament, allowed the Executive to exert influence over Parliament. They, therefore, called for a strict presidential system of government under which all ministers should be appointed from outside Parliament. With respect to the Judiciary, about 64 per cent of the respondents supported an upper limit on the number of judges appointed to the Supreme Court in order to contribute effectively to a fair and credible dispensation of justice. The survey indicated an evenly split opinion on whether or not in a presidential election, a candidate should win a majority of regions and/or a majority of the total votes. Whereas some people contended that a winning candidate might not have a national mandate if he or she won a few regions, others argued that obtaining a majority of the overall votes gave a winning candidate sufficient national mandate. On decentralisation, about 78 per cent of the respondents observed that although the 1992 Constitution places emphasis on the importance of decentralisation, the reality on the ground is different and that real power resides in the central government, not the local government. About 83 per cent of the respondents considered that corruption had been high under the Fourth Republic and attributed the cause to excessive politicisation of accountability issues, poverty, mass illiteracy, a lack of moral probity, among other factors. Presenting the highlights of the survey report at a news conference in Accra last Monday, a Senior Economist at the IEA, Dr Kwadwo Tutu, said, "The overall purpose of the survey was to obtain public opinion on key issues that have dominated the debate on the constitution review". "The IEA will submit this survey report to the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) and it is hoped that the perspective on the issues raised will complement the extensive work the commission has already undertaken," he added. Source: Daily Graphic