The Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine has said the government accepts the recommendation of the Constitutional Review Committee to reduce the minimum eligible age to contest for president to 35 from 40 years.
He said this when he addressed a press conference in Accra on Thursday, July 30.
"Minimum eligible age to contest for president reduced to 35 from 40," he said.
He also announced the government accepts the recommendation of the Constitutional Review Committee to extend the presidential term from 4 to 5 years.
"For the avoidance of doubt, this proposed amendment does not apply to the incumbent President," he said.
The Constitutional Review Committee had proposed a five-year presidential term in Ghana. The committee noted that the current four-year term was too short.
It also said it did not find a place for a third term for a sitting president during its work.
Chair of the Committee, Professor H Kwasi Prempeh, said during the presentation of the final report on Monday, December 22, that nobody seemed to really like the idea of a third term.
“We couldn’t find a place for a third term; nobody really seemed to like it, there was really no demand for it,” he said.
Prof Prempeh further stated that the committee also wants a review of how heads of state-owned enterprises are appointed.
With the powers of the Attorney-General, Prof Prempeh said the committee wanted the powers of the A-G reviewed and some taken away and given to an Ethics Commission to handle cases of corruption. This, in the view of the committee, is to give the A-G free hands to do international arbitration and big constitutional cases.
“ORAL will be done by some other body. We want to take some of the powers of the A-G and give them to an Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission,” he said.
Responding to this, the Attorney-General said that "The government accepts the principle in principle, but the objection does not require a constitutional amendment."