{"id":41208,"date":"2026-07-31T09:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41208"},"modified":"2026-07-31T09:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:28:16","slug":"ghanas-government-backs-five-year-presidential-term-lowers-minimum-age-to-35","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/ghanas-government-backs-five-year-presidential-term-lowers-minimum-age-to-35\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana&#8217;s government backs five year Presidential term, lowers minimum age to 35"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Ghana&#8217;s government has accepted a recommendation \u200bto extend the Presidential term from four to five \u200cyears, the West African country&#8217;s justice minister said on Thursday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>President John Dramani Mahama set up a committee last year that reviewed the 1992 \u200bconstitution and made recommendations, some of which were \u200baccepted by the government.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Attorney General and Minister for Justice \u2060Dominic Ayine said the term of Parliament will also be extended \u200bto match the new presidential term.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The presidential term extension was \u200bdesigned to give administrations more time to govern, the government said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The early months of every administration are consumed by transition matters, and the \u200bfinal year is largely consumed by elections,&#8221; Ayine said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The government accepted \u200bin principle the committee&#8217;s proposal to lower the minimum age for presidential \u200ccandidates, \u2060currently 40, but modified the recommended threshold to 35 years rather than the 30 proposed by the committee.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The government also accepted that Presidential elections will be held in the first \u200bweek of November \u200bto ensure \u2060an adequate gap between polls and the January 7 inauguration.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Another committee will be established to \u200bdraft two amendment bills expected to be ready \u200bby \u2060October 2026.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The bill covering term limits will have to go through a number of steps before going to a national referendum \u2060in \u200b2027.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For the referendum to pass, at least \u200b40% of registered voters must turn out, with at least 75% voting \u200bin favour.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22818,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-41208","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Ghana has accepted a recommendation \u200bto extend the Presidential term","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41209,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41208\/revisions\/41209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}