General News of Friday, 28 August 2015

Source: starrfmonline.com

Age to enter Ghana’s parliament must be 27 – Amoako Baah

Dr Richard Amoako Baah Dr Richard Amoako Baah

Ghana should consider placing the age at which citizens can stand for parliamentary elections at 27 years, a former head of the Political Science Department of KNUST has proposed.

According to Dr Richard Amoako Baah, a lot of people are eyeing parliamentary seats with no work experience and the lawmaking chamber is becoming the easy way out to gain employment.

He said due to the alarming rate of unemployment in Ghana, most of the youth are motivated to go into politics because it is believed to be a money-spinning venture.

The youngest among the 2016 parliamentary race is a 22-year-old Francisca Oteng Mensah of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Kwabre East constituency.

Speaking in an interview with Mintah Hayford of Spark FM, Dr. Amoako Baah said: “If you are a young person, you should have some experience before contesting for MP or even run for president.

“I think when the age for parliamentary race is set at 27, it will enable us have more matured persons in our politics.”