Seventh-day Adventist Church has made calls for a review of the date of December 7 set for the conduct of the national elections.
In distinct appeals initially directed to the Electoral Commission, the church proposes shifting the elections from the traditional December 7 due to a clash with the Sabbath, a sacred day dedicated to the worship of God, as the date coincides with a Saturday.
The church believes a retention of the traditional day will see many Adventists disenfranchised.
In a petition dated January 9, 2024, the church noted that “the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, SDA, is proposing an amendment of non-entrenched Article 1128) for Parliamentary elections to meet the period guaranteed in Article 632 for Presidential elections to be christened “Ghana Elections’ Date Amendment Bill.”
Hopeful of a change, the SDA church suggested the first two weeks as the appropriate dates for the elections to be conducted.
“In anticipation of changing the date for general elections from December 7 to the first (1st) or second (2nd) Tuesday of November, the Leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church met with the Electoral Commission (EC) on Wednesday, June 7.
“The Church proposed to the EC a change from the December 7 date to the 1st or 2nd Tuesday of November in a general elections’ year.”
In a media engagement, the Director for Public Affairs and Religious Liberty at the Southern Ghana Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Dr. Solace Asafo, expressed the church’s desire for elections not to coincide with any religious day in Ghana.
Also, the church is intensifying its efforts by submitting another petition to the Attorney General, advocating for a revision of the constitutional provisions that limit the timeframe for organising parliamentary and presidential elections in Ghana.