Kufuor calls for 5-year presidential mandate

Out-going Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor, on Monday called for an extension of the four-year presidential tenure to five, APA learnt here.

In his last address to parliament in Accra, President Kufuor, recounted his experience and suggested that the four year term was not enough for any new administration to implement policies they had put in place.

He stated that countries such as Malaysia and Singapore have developed not because of good leadership alone but also due long leadership tenures.

Kufuor therefore suggested to the in-coming parliament to consider amending the constitution to allow sitting presidents to stay in office for five years.

President Kufuor also suggested that Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) officials, be given tenures of office that would make it mandatory for them to go on retirement.

This, he said, will help make them more accountable to the people.

The position of EC officials was permanent and can only be removed through impeachment by the law.