Professor H Kwasi Prempeh has defended the Constitutional Review Committee’s recommendation to lower the minimum age for presidential candidates from 40 to 30, arguing that democracy should allow voters to decide who is fit to lead.
Addressing concerns that a 30-year-old may be too young to govern, Prof Prempeh dismissed the fear as misplaced.
“It doesn’t mean that when you are 30 and you stand for president you are going to get elected,” he said on TV3’s Hot Issues, stressing that eligibility does not guarantee victory.
He explained that age is visible to voters and forms part of their judgment.
“The people themselves know what they are getting; it is not as if your age is off-limits,” he noted. “If they choose to vote for you, that is their problem.”
Prof Prempeh argued that maturity and competence are not strictly tied to age.
“If you are 30 and they feel you have accomplished a lot and you have a lot to offer, your maturity shows, your experience shows, and they want to vote for you, that is their choice,” he said.
He also placed the proposal in historical and global context, pointing out that Ghana’s 1960 Constitution allowed younger candidates and that many advanced democracies elect leaders well below 40.
“So 40 years seems to us a bit high,” he concluded.
