Former President John Dramani Mahama has promised to add another holiday for Muslims during Eid-Fitr.
“We aim to address the issue where some of our Muslim community members are unable to enjoy the public holiday at the end of Ramadan due to the 29 or 30-day rule for sighting the moon.
“To do this, we will introduce an additional holiday to the celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr.”
Speaking at the 63rd Annual National Conference of the Ghana Muslim Mission in Kumasi, the former President said they would ensure that this did not affect productivity by modifying the Public Holidays Act.
He promised that they would ensure Ghana continued to have the same number of public holidays per year if that was added.
Mr Mahama assured, “It is our intention to resolve the situation where some of our Muslim brothers and sisters do not enjoy the public holiday at the end of Ramadan fast due to the 29 or 30-day rule based on sighting the moon. Therefore, we will add a holiday to the celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr. If Insha-Allah we are voted into office, we will add an additional holiday to the Eid-ul-Fitr celebration. And we are going to do this by reconfiguring the Public Holiday Act so that Ghana maintains the same number of public holidays per year so that we do not affect productivity.”
The Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu, on December 14, initiated a new private members bill to amend the country’s Public Holidays Act 2001, Act 601, by providing an additional two Islamic public holidays.
These are Tashreeq (a day after the Eid-al-Adha Festival) and Shaqq (a day before the Eid-al-Fitr).
The bill was submitted to the Clerk of Parliament on Wednesday, 29th November 2023, and is currently being processed.
Muslim leaders, on October 8, urged the government to designate two days as official holidays for Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha to address recurring disputes over the commencement of these holidays.
The Conference of Regional Imams of Ghana highlighted the persistent uncertainty about whether the Ramadan holiday should be observed on the 29th or 30th day.
