Since the inception of the Barrow Administration in 2017, there have been numerous calls for a new constitution as the 1997 Constitution – which has been much criticised – needs to be changed. The 1997 Constitution was said to have undergone so much amendments that it is no longer what it used to be.
As a result, there was a lot of euphoria when the government set up a Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) which was tasked with consulting citizens and writing a new draft. The CRC conducted a wide consultation, the like of which had never been done before, and wrote a new draft.
However, this draft failed in the National Assembly when it was introduced in 2020. Many of the members of the National Assembly voted against it because it was said to discriminate against the sitting president. It stipulated that no one shall run for more than two terms whether this was in the past or present.
Supporters of President Adama Barrow saw this as a direct discrimination against him as it meant that after his first term, he would not be able to run for more than one term again. They argued that as the first term was the coalition regime, it was not fair to count it as the first term for President Adama Barrow.
Therefore, the supporters of the president campaigned hard to ensure that the draft was defeated. The minister of Justice was accused of not trying hard enough to defend the draft and thus its failure and rejection. It was thought that the draft would die down but it was later taken up again with some ‘consultations’. Now it has reemerged as the 2024 Draft.
This draft however has been criticised for favoring the cabinet and the sitting government and that is why the opposition parties are kicking against it. There is now a new struggle with those who rejected the 2020 Draft trying to see this one pass while those who voted for the 2020 Draft trying to defeat this one.
The question therefore is this: when shall we have a new constitution?
