Veteran Journalist and Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has sounded the alarms bells, warning that moves by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to politicize the position of Chairman of the Council of State was dangerous and inimical to the country’s democracy.
‘’It is a clear attempt to amend the national constitution or to deform the national constitution through the amendment of the party’s constitution. If you look at the 1992 constitution, it does not describe party membership. It’s not a condition for becoming chairman of the council of state. By this amendment, they have insisted that party membership is a condition for becoming chairman of the council of state. It is scary and surprising that this amendment went through at the NDC congress’’ he said.
In effect according Mr. Pratt, what will happen in the event that the NDC wins political power is that, the council of state chairman will also double as a functionary of a political party given the fact that the amendment made it clear that such a person must be a member of the party’s approved-to-be-created presidential advisory committee.
According to him, the NDC is insisting with the amendment of the party’s constitution that the chairman of the council of state must be a member of the party and a member of its presidential advisory committee, a move he says gives course for concern.
‘’If this is allowed to happen, it means we have totally destroyed the national constitution. Because if you read the national constitution, the impression you get is that the council of state is supposed to be apolitical. A neutral advisory body to the president. It looks like the last resort in resolving matters, so that if you try all the appropriate avenues and things don’t work, then you go there for redress, and that they should advise the president on a non-partisan basis’’ he added.
Source: BestNewsGH.com
