Former President John Mahama may need to permission of parliament to run again for president, Ken Kuranchi, editor of the Daily Searchlight newspaper has argued,
The editor of the Daily Searchlight newspaper and a member of the National Media Commission is questioning former president John Mahama's eligibility for the 2020 polls.
Quoting Article 68 Clause 2 of the 1992 constitution, Ken Kuranchi noted that, "the President shall not, on leaving office as President, hold any office of profit or emolument, except with the permission of Parliament in any establishment, either directly or indirectly, other than that of the State.”
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He, therefore, argued that the eligibility of the former president must be determined by parliament.
“When it comes to former Presidents, there are limits as to how far he [John Mahama] can go,” Mr. Kuranchi said on Accra-based Citi FM. “Doing politics costs a lot of money… When you engage in political activity, you raise money. John Mahama will need to raise money. He will need to spend money.”
According to him, "Once this person under the control of Parliament decides that he wants to engage in this specific activity, he needs to be examined. He needs to find out if that activity he decides to engage in is something that will bring profits or emoluments. You cannot conclude or say positively or not that it will bring emoluments or there are no emoluments unless you subject the particular exercise to some degree of examination.”
President Mahama last month in a letter of notice to the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) declared that he will run for the party's presidential race.
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He will come up against 11 presidential aspirants including veteran politician Alban Bagbin, former Vice Chancellor of the University for Professional Studies, Joshua Alabi and Goosie Tanoh.
Mr Mahama is widely tipped to win the primaries and square off with president Nana Akufo-Addo in 2020.
He lost his reelection bid in 2016 becoming the first sitting president in Ghana to lose an election.