ANN Constitutional Poll Results

8/8/2019 ANN Constitutional Poll Results

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Professor S. Kwaku Asare

Some field evidence on what Ghanaians think of the 4th

Republican Constitution

I present the results of a survey that was conducted from February 22, 2010 to March 21, 2010.

The purpose of the survey was to collate the views of Ghanaians everywhere on the 4

th

Republican Constitution. Survey respondents participated voluntarily by accessing a link that

was placed onwww. Ghanaweb.comand other chat rooms known to and accessible to me (e.g.,

[email protected],glu-ghana-leadership-forum@googlegroups ,elephant-

[email protected]). In addition to accessibility, these sites were chosen because they

are patronized by a good cross section of the population who frequently express views and

debate on the Constitution. Therefore, survey respondents were not randomly chosen. However,

given that the purpose of the survey was to collate views on the Constitution, I wanted

respondents who had read the Constitution or were knowledgeable on the workings of the

Constitution.

The survey consisted of 53 questions. Questions 1 to 5 asked some background questions about

the respondents access to and knowledge of the Constitution while questions 51 to 53 asked

demographic questions. Question 6 asked participants to rate the effectiveness of 20

Constitutional organs. Questions 7 to 15 asked questions about the executive; questions 16 to 26

asked questions pertaining to the legislature; and questions 27 to 34 addressed the judiciary. In

addition, I asked questions about the district assemblies (question 34), death penalty (question

36), political parties (questions 37 to 40), CHRAJ (questions 41 to 45), transitional provisions

(questions 46 and 47), chieftaincy (question 48), and general elections (questions 49 and 50).

The appendix to this executive summary shows the questions asked, frequency distribution of the

responses, and the number of participants who answered and skipped each question.

Demographic Profile of Respondents and Access to Constitution

One thousand two hundred and twenty six (1,226) participants responded to the survey. About

80% of the respondents were between the ages of 31 to 60 and most (95%) of the respondents

were males. Approximately 37% of the respondents self-reported that they own a copy of the

1992 Constitution and only about 18.6% had read all chapters of the Constitution. Surprisingly,

about 28.5% of the respondents had not read some of the chapters or parts of the 1992

Constitution and 18.1% indicated that they did not understand the contents of the Constitution.

Only 7% felt they were extremely knowledgeable about the Constitution. About 25% of thosewho do not read their personal copies of the Constitution, access the Constitution through online

sources such as Ghanaweb while about 17.1% borrow their friends copies. These responses

suggest that the 4th

republican Constitution is not available to, accessible to, read by and

understood by many Ghanaians. Government should consider making it part of the curriculum at

the secondary and tertiary levels.
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Effectiveness of Constitutional Organs

The 4th

Republican Constitution created several organs and charged them with specific

responsibilities. How well have these organs discharged those responsibilities? To address this

question, I asked the respondents to evaluate the effectiveness of 20 Constitutional organs on an

11 point scale where a score of 1 indicates minimum effectiveness, a score of 6 indicatesmoderate effectiveness while a score of 11 indicates maximum effectiveness. The mean

(standard deviation) effectiveness rating for each of the 20 organs is tabulated in Table 1. Table

also reports a raw ranking of the Constitutional organs as well as a statistical ranking. The

statistical rankings are based on means that are statistically significant (i.e., I rank an organ as

more effective than another only if the mean between the two organs cannot be satisfactory

explained by chance. Technically, these are paired t-tests with significance level fixed at .05).

Respondents indicate that the Electoral Commission has been the most effective organ, with a

mean effectiveness rating of 7.56. The Ghana Armed Force, Presidency and the Media are tied

for second place, even though their mean effectiveness rating is less than 6 (moderateeffectiveness). Parliament is considered least effective of the 3 branches of government at a

mean score of 4.34. The Political Parties are ranked as third, ahead of CHRAJ and the National

Security Council. The least effective organs are the Council of State, District Chief Executives,

and the National Development and Planning Commission, who score below 4 on the

effectiveness scale.

Overall, other than the Electoral Commission, it is clear that respondents think that these

Constitutional organs have not been very effective in discharging their constitutional obligations.

Executive

The Constitution vests executive authority in the President who is elected, by universal suffrage,

every fourth year. There has been debate about whether the 4 year tenure is too short, whether

the President has excessive powers, whether the President should appoint ministers from

Parliament, and the proper role of the Attorney General. To provide evidence on these issues, I

posed 9 questions to the respondents. A significant majority of the respondents believe the 4 year

term is adequate (70.6%), the President has excessive power (60.9%), and that the Attorney

Generals position should be separated from the Minister of Justice (79%).

Approximately 83% of respondents did not believe that majority of ministers should be

appointed from Parliament as currently required. On the issue of whether any ministers should be

appointed from Parliament, 58% responded in the negative. An overwhelming majority of

respondents (84%) believe a ceiling should be placed on the number of ministers. However, there

is no consensus on what the ceiling should be. A plurality (40%) believes the ceiling should be

more than 10 but no more than 20. About 80% believe that the ceiling should be less than 30.


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The original 4th

Republican Constitution did not recognize dual citizenship. However, Parliament

amended the Constitution to allow dual citizenship, while keeping the clause that banned citizens

who hold multiple allegiances from serving as ministers intact. The exact meaning of the

multiple allegiance clause is in doubt and has not been interpreted by the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, the clause has been interpreted on the streets to ban dual citizens. What do

respondents think of this ban? Approximately 63.3% believe dual citizens should not be

disqualified from serving as ministers.

Parliament

The constitution vests legislative authority in Parliament. Over the years, 4 key issues have been

debated about Parliament. First, who is qualified to be a Member of Parliament (resulting in the

unseating of George Nyimakan of the Wulensi constituency, the current dispute between the

State and Sakande Adamu, the Bawku Central MP)? Second, what is the proper number of MPs

in a changing population? Third, whether some MPs have served too long, and finally, whether

MPs can or should initiate private bills?

Regarding the first issue, the Constitution stipulates that an MP should hail from or reside in a

constituency for a specified period before being eligible to contest as an MP. Approximately

63% of the respondents agreed with the requirement that a Parliamentary candidate should hail

from the Constituency that he seeks to serve. An even bigger majority (77.1%) agrees that a

Parliamentary Candidate should reside in the constituency that he seeks to serve as an MP.

Moreover, about 75.6% of respondents believe there should be a minimum residency

requirement for those seeking to serve as MPs. That is, respondents are not in favor of allowing

carpetbaggers (those who relocate to a constituency primarily to contest for MP) to run for seats,

which is surprising considering the proclivity of Ghanaians to move around the country.However, there is little consensus on what the minimum residency requirement should be. A

plurality would want to see the minimum residency requirement set at 24 months prior to filing

for nomination but 13% would be satisfied with a liberal residency requirement which will allow

someone to contest as long as he is living in the constituency at the time that he is elected. As

with ministers, an overwhelming majority (68.7%) believe dual citizens should not be

disqualified from serving as MPs.

Approximately 75.6% believe a ceiling should be placed on the number of MPs but there is no

clarity on what the ceiling should be. Approximately 30.2% will fix it at between 180 to 230

members while 26.3% will fix it at no more than 140, as it was in the IndependenceConstitution.

Which constitutional organ should determine the number of MPs assuming there is no ceiling as

in the current constitution? Approximately 44.7% of the respondents believe the decision right

should be allocated to the Electoral Commissioner but 41.8% believe it is Parliament that should


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decide this issue. Only 5.4% believe this should be in the hands of the President. It is surprising

that the respondents will allocate this decision right to Electoral Commissioner, an unelected and

unaccountable bureaucratic. Perhaps, the willingness to endow the Electoral Commissioner with

this key right flows from respondents evaluation of the Electoral Commissioner as the most

effective Constitutional organ.

A surprising majority (58.2%) believe that current constitution does not allow an MP to initiate a

Private Members bill in Parliament, even though there is no such language in the Constitution.

While majority (57.9%) believes there should be a term limit on MPs, there is no agreement on

what the limits should be with a plurality (26%) wanting a one term 4 year tenure.

Judiciary

The judicial power is vested in the judiciary and in the exercise of that power that judiciary is

subject only to the Constitution. Over the years, questions have arisen as to whether the absence

of a ceiling on the number of Supreme Court Justices impaired the independence of the judiciary,whether the selective empanelling of Supreme Court justices by the Chief Justice encouraged

opinion-shopping, and whether the Justices of the Supreme Court should be subject to mandatory

retirement.

Approximately 91% of the respondents believe there should be a ceiling of the number of

Justices of the Supreme Court. However, there is no consensus on what the ceiling should be. A

plurality (33.1%) will set the ceiling at 9 compared to 21.3% who will set it at 11 and 19.8% who

will set it at 7. With respect to empanelling members of the Supreme Court, a plurality (40.1%)

believe all justices of the Supreme Court should sit on all cases before the Supreme Court while

approximately 56.1% believe that Supreme Court decisions should be subject to review. Amajority would want the Regional Tribunals to be removed from the court structure.

Approximately 68% consider the current mandatory retirement age of Justices as necessary.

Further, over 82% think that the mandatory retirement age limits should be extended to all

constitutional offices and a plurality (40.1%) say this limit should be set between 60 to years.

Political Parties

According to Article 55(3) of the Constitution the internal organization of a political party should

conform to democratic principles. I asked the respondents to evaluate the extent to which current

political parties conform to democratic principles on an 11 point conformance scale (withendpoints labeled minimally conform and maximally conform) and some specific questions

on how such democratic principles can be realized. The rankings of the political parties are

tabulated in Table 2.


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First, the scores are low indicating respondents evaluation that political parties are generally not

conforming to democratic principles. No party scores 7. Second, NPP is judged to be the party

that has the highest conformance rate, followed by CPP, PNC and NDC.

With respect to the specific questions, majority ( 64.3% and 54.3% respectively) of respondents

indicate that political parties should be required to allow all their registered members to vote intheir election for a flag-bearer as well as their national executives. The respondents were even

more emphatic when it came to their view of the election of parliamentary candidates where

79.8% indicated all registered members of the political parties should be allowed to vote.

CHRAJ

The Constitution empowers CHRAJ (a) to investigate corruption allegations; (b) cases of human

right abuses; and (c) conflict of interest cases by public officials in the discharge of their duties.

Some have argued that this remit is too broad and should be reduced. I asked the respondents for

their views on this issue. With respect to the mandate, about 68.7% indicated that the mandatewas not too broad. However, assuming it was decided to reduce CHRAJs mandate, a plurality

suggests that the investigation of conflict of interest cases should be taken away.

Contrary to a Supreme Court ruling, which held that CHRAJ could not initiate corruption

allegation sua sponte (on its own), 75% of the respondents indicate CHRAJ should be able to

initiate corruption allegation on its own. An even higher percent (78.3) indicate that CHRAJ

should have the power to prosecute current government officials, which contrasts with the

current requirement that all prosecutions are to be initiated by the Attorney General.

On a related note, about 83.9% indicate that a prosecutor, not under the supervision of the

Attorney General, should be appointed where it becomes necessary to prosecute current

government officials.

Transitional Provisions and Immunity Clause

Section 34(1) the Transitional provision provide immunity to members and functionaries of the

PNDC and 34(2) ousts the jurisdiction of the courts to entertain any actions brought before them

in respect of actions taken by prior military regimes. Whether these provisions should be

repealed from the Constitution has been subject to debate at various times during the 4th

Republic. About 71% of the respondents indicate that the section 34(1) should be repealed and

65.3% indicate that section 34(2) should also be repealed.

Miscellaneous Issues

Approximately 78% say that District Chief Executives should be elected by registered voters in

their districts. A majority (57.8%) will want the death penalty abolished. Approximately 78.8%

are in agreement with the current constitutional requirement that prohibits chiefs from holding


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elected offices. A plurality (40.8%) suggests that general elections should be held 3 months

before the inauguration date and approximately 76% will allow Ghanaians abroad to vote

overseas.

Conclusion

Some clear themes emerge from the survey that has policy implications. First, even though the

Constitution has been in operation since 1993, most Ghanaians do not own a copy and fewer still

have read all the chapters or even parts of the Constitution. Perhaps, this explains why

respondents thought the National Commission on Civic Education is ineffective. Going forward,

affirmative action should be taken to make the Constitution more accessible to the populace. It

might be useful to consider a mandatory course on the Constitution that starts from the JSS and

continues through the Universities.

Second, with the exception of the Electoral Commission (EC), most Ghanaians believe the

Constitutional organs are largely ineffective. I believe the high evaluation of the EC isattributable to the non-partisan and non-corrupt manner in which it discharges its constitutional

responsibilities. If so, it is clear that other organs can improve their standing and reputation with

the public by adopting the same non-partisan and non-corrupt attitude. The performance of the

Council of State, District Chief Executives, and the National Development Planning Commission

is rated very poorly, raising the question of whether and how they can be reformed. The citizens

on these organs should step up the plate and do more or explain why they have been so

ineffective.

Third, most Ghanaians want the size of government curtailed through the imposition of ceilings

on the number of ministers, MPs and Supreme Court Justices. However, there is little consensuson what the ceilings should be suggesting the need for a national debate on this question.

Fourth, most Ghanaians are happy with the current 4-year tenure of the Presidency. However,

they are concerned that the President wields too much power and would rather the President does

not appoint ministers from Parliament.

Fifth, most Ghanaians would want to see a term limit on being a Member of Parliament. Sixth,

most Ghanaians accept the concept of equal citizenship and want dual citizens to be accorded

full citizenship rights, including the right to vote where they reside, the right to be voted for, and

the right to serve as ministers of state.

Sixth, most Ghanaians do not think the Political Parties have internal democracy as required by

the Constitution. At a minimum, they want the flag-bearers, national executives, and Members of

Parliament chosen by all party members. This suggests that the Electoral Commission and the

Political Parties should work up modalities to register party members and facilitate their voting at

party congresses.


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Finally, most Ghanaians want to see the repeal of the transitional provisions.


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Table 1

Respondents Evaluation of Constitutional Organs on 11 Point Scale

Constitutional Organ Mean Standard

Deviation

Raw

Ranking

Statistical

Ranking

Electoral Commission 7.56 2.98 1 1

Ghana Armed Forces 5.94 3.03 2 2

Presidency 5.92 3.07 3 2

Media 5.84 3.03 4 2

Political parties 5.50 2.86 5 3

CHRAJ 5.13 2.80 6 4

National Security Council 5.08 2.82 7 4

National Media Commission 4.73 2.74 8 5

Auditor General 4.72 2.69 9 5

Statistical Service 4.69 2.73 10 5

Judiciary 4.61 2.84 11 5, 6

Prison Service 4.45 2.74 12 6, 7

Parliament 4.34 2.87 13 7, 8

District Assemblies 4.20 2.65 14 8, 9

Public Service Commission 4.15 2.50 15 9

Police Service 4.07 2.72 16 9, 10

National Committee on Civic Education 4.03 2.67 17 10

Council of State 3.87 2.69 18 11

District Chief Executives 3.84 2.61 19 11

National Development and Planning Commission 3.75 2.54 20 11


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Table 2

Respondents Evaluation of Political parties Conformance to Democratic Principles on 11 Point

Scale

Political Party Mean Standard

Deviation

Raw Rank Statistical

Rank

National Patriotic Party (NPP) 6.39 2.96 1 1

Convention Peoples Party (CPP) 5.70 2.73 2 2

Peoples National Convention (PNC) 5.14 2.63 3 3

National Democratic Congress (NDC) 4.86 2.97 4 4

Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) 4.29 2.61 5 5

Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) 3.86 2.64 6 6

Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere

(EGLE)

3.77 2.66 7 6

Ghana National Party (GNP) 3.76 2.61 8 6

Ghana Democratic Republican Party

(GDRP)

3.61 2.62 9 7

United Ghana Movement (UGM) 3.56 2.65 10 7

National Reform Party (NRP) 3.18 2.64 11 8