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New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart and lawyer Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has criticised a legal argument seeking to reinterpret Ghana’s presidential term limit and warns that accepting the position could allow presidents to repeatedly contest elections beyond the two-term limit set by the constitution.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Otchere-Darko argued that interpreting the constitutional provision as applying only to consecutive terms would effectively remove the lifetime restriction on presidential tenure.
“It is rewriting the constitution”
Otchere-Darko said the argument before the Supreme Court could create a situation where a president who had served two non-consecutive terms could continue seeking office after losing elections.
He illustrated his concern by suggesting that if the interpretation succeeds, a president could run for office again after completing a second term, lose an election and return in another election cycle.
“If he wins in 2032, he could contest again in 2036 because, according to this theory, he still would not have served two consecutive terms,” Gabby wrote.
He added that such a reading could even allow further attempts in later election cycles.
“If he then loses in 2036, why stop there? He could run again in 2040, and if he wins, he could still seek another term in 2044 because only then would he have completed two back-to-back terms,” Gabby said.
He argued that such a scenario would mean the two-term limit would effectively reset whenever a president failed to win consecutive elections.
“That is not interpreting the constitution. It is rewriting it,” he declared.
Argument over Article 66
Otchere-Darko maintained that Article 66(2) of Ghana’s 1992 constitution states that an individual shall not be elected to hold the office of president for more than two terms, and does not contain the phrase “two consecutive terms”.
“Had the framers intended that qualification, they knew exactly how to say so. They didn’t,” he said.
Gabby argued that asking the Supreme Court to insert words not included by the framers would amount to constitutional amendment through judicial interpretation.
Third-term petition before Supreme Court
Otchere-Darko’s comments follow a suit filed at the Supreme Court by Ganiwu Alhassan, a teacher from Kpandai in the Northern Region.
The plaintiff is seeking an interpretation to the effect that a person who has served two separate, non-consecutive presidential terms remains eligible to run for the presidency again.
The suit argues that the constitutional restriction applies only to two consecutive terms and does not automatically prevent a former president from seeking office after serving interrupted terms.
Mahama rejects claims
The debate has emerged because President John Dramani Mahama is serving a second term after being president of Ghana from 2012 to 2017, before former President Nana Akufo-Addo’s eight-year tenure.
Mahama has repeatedly stated that he has no intention of seeking a third term in office or amending the constitution to enable him to do so.
The Supreme Court is expected to determine the constitutional interpretation once the Attorney General responds to the writ.
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