Prof Prempeh (left) has refuted Blay’s assertion of a possibility of Mahama going for a 3rd term
The Chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee, Prof H Kwasi Prempeh, has challenged the assertion by former NPP Chairman, Freddie Blay, that a Supreme Court interpretation of a provision in the 1992 Constitution on presidential term limits, can lead to President John Dramani Mahama running for a third term.
Speaking in an interview on Oyerepa FM on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Blay claimed that the apex court of the land can interpret the constitution to permit President Mahama to run for presidency again.
“The law is in the bosom of the judges. If it goes to the Supreme Court, which has the exclusive judicial right to interpret the constitution – and that body decides that what it means by two terms is conservatively this or that, I don’t have a problem with it.
“The law court does not vote for a president. It is the individuals who constitute the panel who may look at a case, and they have only one vote each. It is the people of this country who will vote,” he said.
Reacting to this in a post shared on Facebook on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Prof Prempeh asserted that there is only one interpretation of the law on presidential term limits, Article 66(1).
He stated that no judge can alter the meaning of the article to permit President Mahama to seek a third term.
“Any interpretation of Article 66(1) to the effect that a President who has been elected to a second term can stand election again (i.e., a third time) upon the expiration of the second term is illegitimate and bogus. Judges do not have authority to rewrite, amend or set aside a provision of the constitution whose text and purpose, including from history, admit to only one meaning. Two terms mean two terms!
“If the Framers of Article 66(1) had wanted to say that a President cannot be elected to office as President ‘for more than two consecutive terms,’ thereby leaving room for a possible non-consecutive third term, they would have said so. They would have said so, as they knew what is said in Article 246(2) of the same Constitution in relation to a District Chief Executive. There is nothing wrong with or unclear about Article 66(1) in its current form. Two terms mean two terms!”
Prof Prempeh, who is also the Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), added, “This matter must be laid to rest. The Supreme Court is not omnipotent or above the constitution.”
View a video of Blay’s remarks and Prof Prempeh’s post below:
BAI/VPO
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