The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is advocating for an amendment to the date of the general elections scheduled for December 7, 2024, in Ghana.
In a petition addressed to the Electoral Commission and the Attorney General, the church highlighted that the chosen date, falling on a Saturday, conflicts with the Sabbath—a sacred day dedicated to the worship of God.
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is proposing the adoption of “the first (1st) or second (2nd) Tuesday of November” as the new election date, emphasizing the need to codify this change to ensure Adventists have the freedom to worship.
The church leadership had a meeting with the Electoral Commission on June 7, 2023, where they presented the proposal for a change from the December 7 date to the suggested Tuesdays in November during a general election year.
James Kwabena Bomfeh, Deputy Head of Religious Liberty at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, justified the proposal in a Citi News interview.
He argued that adopting this change would provide sufficient time for the transition process and allow traditional worshippers to actively participate in elections, as they typically refrain from farming activities on Tuesdays.
Bomfeh stated, “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.”