{"id":70263,"date":"2025-07-09T01:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T01:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=70263"},"modified":"2025-07-09T01:48:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T01:48:13","slug":"cjs-powers-too-excessive-prone-to-political-abuse-prof-prempeh-calls-for-urgent-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=70263","title":{"rendered":"CJ\u2019s powers too excessive, prone to political abuse \u2013 Prof. Prempeh calls for urgent reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee, Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, has warned that the excessive powers currently vested in the Office of the Chief Justice pose a serious threat to Ghana\u2019s democracy and judicial integrity.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a Learning and Exchange event organised by the African Judicial Independence Fund (AJIF), Prof. Prempeh called for sweeping constitutional reforms to limit the concentration of authority in the CJ\u2019s office, which he argues makes the judiciary susceptible to political influence.<\/p>\n

According to him, the current arrangement, where the CJ holds both administrative and judicial control over the entire court system, creates a centralised structure ripe for abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe larger the court, the greater the temptation for the Chief Justice to feel empowered to empanel judges for specific cases,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven if that power is used, it must be regulated to avoid perceptions of bias. Once politicians recognise the extent of the CJ\u2019s authority, they\u2019ll start targeting the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof. Prempeh also took issue with how Supreme Court justices are appointed and removed, arguing that both processes are overly reliant on presidential discretion and lack sufficient transparency and stakeholder involvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more stakeholders involved in the nomination process to prevent it from becoming the president\u2019s sole decision, rubber-stamped by a compliant partner,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs for removals, we initially overlooked this because it wasn\u2019t commonly applied to judges. But after its use against the CHRAJ Commissioner, then the Electoral Commission, and now the Chief Justice, precedent has been set, so both processes need to be revisited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof. Prempeh stressed that if Ghana\u2019s judiciary is to retain its legitimacy and public confidence, urgent reforms are needed, not just to ensure independence from political interference but also to promote accountability within the judicial arm of government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"CJ\u2019sChairman of the Constitutional Review Committee, Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, is warning that the excessive powers currently vested in the office of the Chief Justice pose a serious threat to Ghana\u2019s democracy and judicial integrity.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}