From presidential powers to dual citizenship and DCE elections, Ghana’s TUC sets out which constitutional changes it supports — and which it rejects, writes Jon Offei-Ansah
Keypoints:
- TUC backs limits on presidential power
- Dual-citizen MPs proposal rejected
- DCE candidate control faces opposition
GHANA’S Trades Union Congress has set out the constitutional changes it supports, rejects and accepts only with conditions, drawing clear lines on presidential power, dual citizenship, ministerial appointments, local government elections and the management of natural resources.
Rather than endorse or oppose the constitutional review as a single package, the union is assessing individual proposals against a broader principle: whether reform transfers authority towards citizens, strengthens democratic accountability and reduces excessive concentration of power in central government.
Five-year term comes with conditions
The Constitution Review Committee (CRC) recommended extending each presidential term from four years to five, a proposal the government accepted, according to the TUC’s review of the official position.
The union does not reject the change.
Its concern is that if a government performs badly, citizens would have to endure the consequences for five years rather than four before another presidential election.
The TUC therefore says tenure extension cannot simply be approved while the rest of Ghana’s governance arrangements remain unchanged.
‘One cannot, therefore, merely agree to tenure extension and leave everything else the same,’ the union said.
It wants the proposal considered alongside reforms designed to improve accountability and constrain executive power.
Africa Briefing previously examined the reasoning behind the proposed five-year presidential term when the committee presented its recommendations.
Presidential powers should be reduced
The TUC supports amending Article 70 to reduce presidential appointment powers but argues that Article 70 alone does not address the extent of executive influence.
Its memorandum to the CRC also proposed amending Article 195(1) as part of a broader attempt to limit presidential appointment authority.
The union similarly backs a clearer institutional separation between Parliament and the executive.
It supports amending Article 78(1) so sitting MPs cannot simultaneously serve as Ministers of State, Deputy Ministers or Regional Ministers.
‘We do not expect Ministers of State to act simultaneously as members of parliament in a reformed Constitution,’ the TUC said.
However, the union rejects the CRC proposal that an MP who resigns from Parliament should then be barred from ministerial appointment for the remainder of that Parliament’s term.
The combination of those positions shows that the TUC wants institutional separation without imposing a blanket restriction on former MPs moving into the executive after giving up their parliamentary seats.
Dual-citizen MPs firmly rejected
One of the TUC’s clearest objections concerns Article 94(2)(a).
The union rejects the proposal to permit dual citizens to contest parliamentary elections and serve as MPs while retaining citizenship of another country.
Its language on the proposal is unusually strong.
The TUC described the recommendation as ‘self-serving’ and ‘a direct assault on the genuine citizenship’, adding that it was ‘contradictory and serves no useful purpose for the country’.
That position contrasts sharply with efforts to broaden political participation by Ghanaians living abroad.
Africa Briefing previously reported that President John Dramani Mahama had backed constitutional changes allowing greater diaspora participation in Parliament.
The competing positions expose a fundamental question for the review process: whether parliamentary eligibility should place exclusive citizenship obligations on MPs or accommodate the increasingly transnational character of Ghana’s diaspora.
DCE elections expose decentralisation divide
The TUC agrees with the government that elections for District Chief Executives should take place across all districts at the same time rather than being introduced gradually.
But its agreement ends there.
The union strongly opposes the government proposal under which an incumbent administration would select or nominate five people before three are shortlisted to contest a DCE election.
For the TUC, an election intended to strengthen local accountability should not begin with central government controlling who enters the candidate pool.
‘Districts must be allowed the autonomy to conduct their elections without a central government selecting candidates for them,’ the union said.
The position reflects the TUC’s wider constitutional philosophy: decentralisation should transfer meaningful authority rather than introduce elections within structures that remain substantially controlled from Accra.
Council of State appointments should shrink
The TUC wants the Council of State retained but significantly reformed.
It considers the institution useful but says the dominance of presidential appointees is unhelpful and weakens its ability to meet public expectations.
‘The overwhelming dominance of presidential appointees on the Council is unhelpful,’ the union said.
The TUC proposes limiting the number of Council members appointed by the President to no more than five.
It also supports changing the composition of District Assemblies.
The CRC recommendations considered allocations involving traditional authorities, women, business owners, persons with disabilities, young people and non-governmental organisations. The government cited practical difficulties, but the TUC says those implementation concerns do not justify rejecting the reform.
Resource agreements need parliamentary scrutiny
Natural-resource governance provides another clear indication of where the TUC wants constitutional power redistributed.
The union supports the CRC’s broad proposals for reforming Ghana’s legal framework for managing lands and natural resources and questions the government’s rejection of the recommendations it reviewed.
It said it found it ‘strange’ that, given Ghana’s historical and contemporary concerns over lands and natural resources, the government ‘finds no value in all the recommendations by the CRC’.
The TUC backs vesting lands in the people of Ghana rather than the President and reforming the Lands Commission to serve as the primary constitutional trustee and manager of those lands.
More significantly for major mining and resource agreements, it supports amending Article 268 to require prior parliamentary approval before a natural-resource agreement or concession is granted or signed.
The proposal comes amid wider debate about how Ghana captures value from its mineral wealth. Africa Briefing has followed that discussion through calls to reassess mining leases and increase national control over resources as well as controversy surrounding the Ewoyaa lithium agreement and mineral governance.
Taken together, the TUC positions form a coherent constitutional argument rather than a collection of isolated objections.
The union favours reforms that disperse appointment authority, strengthen parliamentary oversight and increase local autonomy. It resists measures it believes would preserve central-government control or weaken its conception of political accountability.
Its final test is whether a reformed Constitution can strengthen governance, uphold rights and convert Ghana’s political stability into wider economic and social transformation.