Mahama reiterates plans to change four-year presidential term to five years

President John Dramani Mahama has repeated his proposal to extend the tenure of elected public officials from four years to five years.

Addressing residents during his tour of the Central Region, the President said the proposed constitutional amendment would apply to the offices of the President, Members of Parliament and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), arguing that the current four-year term does not provide enough time for governments to fully implement their programmes.

“It is our proposal that the president, MPs, DCEs should serve for five years,” Mr Mahama said. “We are changing the term of office because when you look at Africa, Ghana and Nigeria are the only two countries who have a four-year presidential term.”

According to him, many African countries have adopted five-year presidential terms, a model he believes offers governments sufficient time to settle into office and deliver on their mandates before attention shifts to the next election.

“And the four-year period is not enough. Before you’ll put your administration together, the next election would be close so for many countries in Africa it’s five years, so we want Ghana to have the five-year system,” he stated.

Under Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, an elected President serves a four-year term and may seek re-election for one additional term.

Members of Parliament are also elected every four years, while MMDCEs currently serve four-year terms under the existing constitutional framework.

The proposed changes, however, cannot be implemented through ordinary legislation. Because they concern entrenched provisions of the 1992 Constitution, they would require constitutional amendment procedures, including the approval of Ghanaian voters through a national referendum.

The President’s latest remarks revive discussions over the length of political terms in Ghana, with supporters arguing that longer mandates would promote policy continuity, while critics maintain that regular elections strengthen democratic accountability by allowing citizens to assess the performance of elected leaders more frequently.

It is hardly the first time the five-year presidential term has been proposed.

Before leaving office in 2009, then President John Agyekum Kufuor proposed extending Ghana’s presidential term from four to five years.

He consistently advocated for this change, arguing that a four-year window is too short for a new administration to grasp the intricacies of public administration, form a government, and successfully implement major developmental projects.