A Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo has waded into the request by the Seventh Day Adventist Church to the Electoral Commission of Ghana saying “it will allow for more requests in the future”.
The Seventh Day Adventist Church petitioned the Electoral Commission of Ghana to consider changing the date of this year’s election. The request was on the premise that, Dec. 7 which marks one of Ghana’s democratic test will fall on Saturday, a day they observe their sabbath.
The request made by the SDA, has attracted lots of discussions from political fronts and analysts. Speaking on the News File on Joy News, Professor Gyampo, said heeding to the request by the SDA is one that he will not advise the Electoral Commission do.
Prof. Gyampo shared that, if the Electoral Commission approves the request to change the date of the election, it will open doors to more requests and favors from different groups in the days to come and in the future.
“…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 go, we shouldn’t. If it falls on Sunday, you have a ponderance, majority of Ghanaians being Christian, they may say that it is going to disturb the day selected to worship their God”, he said.
According to him, Ghana is bounded by laws and the laws guarantees the expression of religion. He also noted that, the constitution describes the country as secular state but does not allow that the expression of religion should be exercised in a way that will suppress other religions.
“Ghana 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,” Gyampo said.
He further mentioned that even though elections and voting is antional exercise and a civic duty for one to partake in, the decision to get involved solely becomes the choice of the individual.