Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has told President Akufo-Addo that he can’t abort a referendum that is backed by a constitutional instrument.
The President announced the decision to stop the processes for the referendum on December 17 after “broad consultation with other stakeholders”.
Akufo-Addo accused the opposition National Democratic Congress of bad faith and hypocrisy.
“The time has come to strip the process of its hypocrisy, and accept and work with the reality of party involvement. It is on this basis that I proceeded in subsequently instructing the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development to initiate a parliamentary process for the repeal of Article 55(3) of the Constitution,” he said.
“I thought there was general consensus after meetings with three of my predecessors, but the sudden U-turn of the National Democratic Congress have left me with no other option than to further engage other stakeholders,”, the President added.
Responding to this development, the legal expert and US-based accounting professor Stephen Kwaku Asare popularly known as Kwaku Azar indicated that the President had no right to call off the referendum.
Kwaku Azar said the referendum cannot be withdrawn when there is a Constitutional Instrument (C.I) on it.
‘Rule of law is complicated when bills, CIs, and writ of referendum are triggered in a constitutional plane. One cannot simply withdraw a bill that has been held in abeyance by a CI.”’, he said.
“I do not think the President can set aside the CI. Nor should we interpret our laws to allow one person to be able to call off a legally authorized referendum on the eve of the event,” the legal brain argued.
He added that the right thing to do to stop the referendum is to annul the C.I with 2/3rd majority votes in Parliament.
