Halt constitutional review process – CPP

Leadership of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) has called on the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) to halt the on-going review process.

Madam Samia Nkrumah, the National Chairperson of CPP, made the call when leadership of the party held a meeting with the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Winner Takes All (WTA) Advisory Committee in Accra.

She said there were many issues to be clarified as regards the proposed constitutional amendments by the CRC and it was imperative that the entire review process be halted for more engagements and clarifications.

She supported the call by the IEA-WTA Advisory Committee on the need to appoint officers to state institutions by an independent body rather than the President.

She also called for the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives to promote grassroots participation and accelerate development.

Samia Nkrumah, however, disagreed with the proposed reforms by the IEA-WTA Advisory Committee with regards to proportional representation and formation of coalition government instead of holding a run-off when there is no clear winner after first round of elections.

She said with the coalition government or power sharing, the party with the majority tends to absorb members of the minority to its fold, saying that the CPP has a painful experience of losing some of its members who served in the erstwhile New Patriotic Party administration.

She said coalition government would only work when there was an existence of a national development plan which would be binding on all parties to implement.

“But, if a political party should win election based on its manifesto, forming a coalition government with other minority parties would only result in absorbing those individual members because they would not be allowed to implement their parties’ policies,” she said.

She said, with regards to the proportional representation, caution must be exercised, as it sometimes distabilises the governance of a country, citing Italy, who are practicing the system as an example.

Other members of the CPP such as Ivor Greenstreet, the General Secretary and Kwabena Bomfeh, a leading member, expressed similar sentiments of their National Chairperson.

Mr Emile Short, a member of the IEA-WTA Advisory Committee, explained that the decision by the Committee to call for the abolishing of winner takes all system of governance is to end the tension, enmity, animosity and sabotage associated with the system.

He said it is important that a more participatory system of governance is adopted to accelerate development.