The leadership of the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church has petitioned the Attorney General’s office to sponsor a bill to amend the Saturday, December 7, 2024, election day, indicating that it is the Sabbath Day to worship God.
The Church, however, proposed the 1st or 2nd Tuesday of November to ensure an all-inclusive democratic exercise that would not deliberately deny others from exercising their voting rights.
“It is the considered view of the Church that this bill should be sponsored by the Office of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General (Executive) because of its nature. Hence, the request for this meeting with the Honourable Minister in that regard.”
The Church indicated that the amendment has become necessary following its positive engagements with the EC. The church’s position stems from a proposal made by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) in 2011 and the Electoral Reforms Committee in 2015.
“Pursuant to the work of the Constitutional Review Commission (2011) and that of the Electoral Reform Committee (2015), particularly with references to (i) Paragraph 265 at page 193, the CRC recommended the period for elections “not later than 60 days to the installation of a new President and Parliament on January 7. (ii) Likewise, the ECRC suggested a date change from “December 7 to November 7 in Proposal 8 on pages 10 and 11,” the church stated.
“The Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDA) is proposing an amendment of non-entrenched Article 112(4) for Parliamentary elections to meet the period guaranteed in Article 63(2) for Presidential elections to be christened “Ghana Elections’ Date Amendment Bill.”
