SDA December 7 petition: Changing Election Day can create state of confusion – Prof. Gyampo

Political scientist and senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo, has asserted that changing Saturday, December 7, 2024 Election Day can create a state of confusion in the future.

This follows a petition by the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church for the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to sponsor a bill in parliament that would seek to change this year’s Election Day as it falls on a Saturday, which is a Sabbath.

Reacting to the development in a media engagement monitored by 3news.com, Professor Gyampo, amongst other things, said, “Today it is SDA if it is granted; tomorrow it will be Harikrishnas, Muslims, and Christians, and it creates a state of confusion and a state of factionalism in the body politics. It’s not something that we should encourage.”

To buttress his claims, Prof. Gyampo further stated that the country’s mother law, the constitution, which guarantees freedom of worship and association, also states that Ghana is a secular country in that no one’s beliefs or religious inclination should be seen to override another person or group.

“With the greatest of respect to them, Ghana it is our constitution that guarantees the free expression of our religion. At the same time, the constitution says we are a secular state. And so if it is a secular state, people have the right to exercise their religion, but this must not be exercised in a manner that sort of projects their religious beliefs and faith and ideals over those of the other people who also have different religious beliefs and faith and ideals.”

“So the point is that given that it is a secular state any day is fine. Otherwise, if we allow this tomorrow if Election Day is on Friday, Muslims will tell us that, well, they go to the mosque on Friday and so, we should not. If it falls on Sunday, you have a ponderance majority of Ghanaians being Christians, they may say that it is going to disturb the day selected to worship their God,” the political science lecturer added.

Prof. Gyampo stated that while voting is a national obligation, individuals should have the freedom to choose to fulfil their religious obligation instead of voting.

“So long as the fundamental laws of the land say you’re a secular country, we should be careful not to allow all religious beliefs and sects to also come in making pleas and demands,” he said.

The SDA church has requested in two different petitions—the first one addressed to the Electoral Commission—that the elections be rescheduled from the usual December 7 date because it falls on a Saturday, which is the Sabbath, a holy day for the worship of God.

The Church therefore 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.

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