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The Member of Parliament for Ablekuma South, Alfred Okoe Vanderpujie, has called for the constitutional amendment to increase the tenure of the President to a “six- year one term” of office.

According to him, a critical consideration must be given to the Article 66(1) and (2) which seeks to limit the term of office of government in Ghana to a term of four years unless “re-elected for a second term”. Speaking on the floor of parliament on Tuesday, March 7, the Ablekuma South legislator argued that every government in Ghana has four years in which to serve and achieve all manifesto promises made to electorates. “The second year of administration of every government is the active period within the government’s term of office.”

He further stated that the third year is characterized by gathering financial resources and marshalling political strategies towards general elections, summing up that the fourth year is an electioneering period. He advanced his argument with a quote from Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah: ‘Ghana face neither East not West: we face forward…and that the best way for learning to be an independent sovereign state is to be an independent state’. “This statement proposes for the consideration of this House, ‘a six (6) year one term of presidency without any opportunity for re-election,” the former Accra mayor stressed. “This will save the nation from huge financial burdens in organizing elections and promote proper accountability to the electorates.”