Don’t consider extension of presidency; Former SC Justice warns

Eminent Ghanaian jurist and a Former Electoral Commissioner Justice Vincent Cyril Richard Arthur Charles (VCRAC) Crabbe says the four-year term for constitutionally elected presidents of Ghana under the current constitution is enough.

He said it serves as a check on leaders who want extensions to their mandates to work hard in order to get a second term, which the constitution provides.

“[The four-year term] is a test,” Justice Crabbe noted. “If you do very well within the four years, you have a second term and you have eight years.”

Justice Crabbe made these remarks over the weekend when he took the hot seat on TV3's Hot Issues.

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has been among leaders who called for an extension of the presidential mandate to five years, citing “shortness” of four years.

But Justice Crabbe argues that politicians are making that call not from genuine intentions.

“Life they say is short and the politicians will tell you that a week in politics is like a year. So their four years, to me, is 16 years by their own showing and therefore they have to work with four years. Let’s accept that.”

He said any good-intentioned leader can make an impact within four years.