HANDING OVER PLAN PUT FORWARD

By Edmund Mingle
Saturday, 20 December 2008

A Presidential Transition Bill that seeks to provide a legal framework for an effective transfer of power from one government to another without rancour and mistrust was launched in Accra yesterday.

The Bill, put together by the Institute of Economic Affairs and the four political parties with representation in parliament, ultimately seeks to resolve the problems that have characterized political transitions in the country including the length of the transitional period, end of service benefits for outgoing appointees, privileges of outgoing president and the constitution of a transitional team.

It answers questions like “which officials enter into government and leave with the President?,” How should the handing-over arrangement on January 7, be handled?,” How can it be ensured that the new President’s swearing-in is not unduly delayed by Parliament in case of a delay in electing a speaker?,” “when is the Speaker of Parliament is to be elected?,” and “what are the entitlement of a president and who is responsible for them?”

Although the bill is unlikely to be passed by Parliament before the December 28, run-off, the IEA believes it could serve as a useful guide for arrangement for the impending transition in January.

Launching the Bill, Rev. Dr. Mensa Otabil, General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church reiterated the importance of the bill, saying “we need a law on political transitions in this country to define the dos and don’ts for both outgoing and incoming presidents.”

Peter Mac Manu, National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Alex Segbefia, Campaign Coordinator of the National Democratic Congress, Haruna Mohammed, Policy Analyst of the People’s National Convention and Ivor Greenstreet, General Secretarty of the Convention People’s Party, who represented their parties, endorsed the Bill and urged Parliament to give it its maximum attention because of its relevance to strengthening the country’s democracy.

According to the preface of the bill, there was a need to correct the irregularities that have characterized transitions in Ghana, especially that of 2001 when former president Rawlings of the NDC administration handed over power to President Kufuor.

It recalled the January 1997 when Ghana experience her first political transition under the Fourth Republic Constitution .That transition was not remarkable since it was a transition from the same party’s-NDC to NDC- president Rawlings

Similarly the transition of 2005 was also unremarkable because it was from NPP to NPP’s president Kufuor.

It observed that the transition from the NDC to NPP in January 2001, presented a political and constitutional first in the history of post independence Ghana, and for that reason various problems were encountered during the transition since there was no precedent.
However, because the 2000election went into a run-off, the there was time constraint since the transfer arrangement had to take place within a short period of six days.

As a result, the mistakes left in their wake acrimony, tension and ill-feeling.
“The lesson from that transition in 2001 is that we must prepare for future transitions of that nature on agreeing on a multi-partisan framework and ground rules to guide transitions,” the bill proposed.

Among other provisions, the bill proposes that the outgoing president, within 24hours of the declaration of the results, convenes a transition team with representatives of all parties to prepare arrangement for the hand-over, instead the three days interval as experienced in 2001.

Also, it proposes that to ensure that Parliament gets itself ready for the president-elect’s swearing in, the Clerk of Parliament should within 48hours of the declaration of results of the presidential and parliamentary election, summon a meeting of the elected members of Parliament to elect a Speaker, his deputies and take their oaths as Parliamentarians.

That would be parliament to be prepared in time for the swearing in of the president elect, and to avoid the delays that characterized the swearing in of President Kufuor for his second term in on January 7,2005ere was prolonged debate and voting for a Speaker of the House.
Currently, the outgoing House is dissolved on January 6, for the new House to be formed on January 7, before the swearing in of the President elect.

It also proposes that handing a team be set up at the presidency to take proper inventory of assets to determine which the outgoing president could take away and which ones needed to be handed over.

In addition, it proposed that appointees who cease to be in office upon the assumption of office of a new president, should vacate their premises within three months after the handing over.