A proposal has been made by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church to modify the general election date of December 7, 2024.
The church claimed that the date, which falls on a Saturday, interferes with the Sabbath—a holy day they have set apart for the worship of God—in a petition to the Attorney General and the Electoral Commission.
In order to ensure that Adventists have the freedom to worship, the church is suggesting that “the first (1st) or second (2nd) Tuesday of November” be chosen as the new date for Ghana’s general elections.
“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, 2023.
“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 an interview with Citi News, James Kwabena Bomfeh, the Deputy Head of Religious Liberty of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, defended the idea by saying that it would give ample time to get ready for the ensuing transition process.
Since traditional worshipers typically don’t work on their farms on Tuesdays, he said that if the plan were to be approved, it would also allow them to cast a complete ballot in the elections.
“We do have enough time between elections and swearing-in, and also to allow for a smooth exchange of files and processes between outgoing regimes and incoming ones. We will have a day, therefore, in this sense, Tuesday, where in the traditional society, those who go to the farm relieve themselves of farming duties and stay at home; those who go fishing stay at home to also rest and participate massively in the elections.”
