Part 1

THE ruling PDP Laban recently submitted a draft constitution to the House of Representatives. One of the proposals is to shift from the current presidential to a semi-presidential form of government. What is the basis of this proposal? How does it compare with a pure presidential and pure parliamentary system? Table 1 provides a comparison in terms of their main features, strengths, weaknesses/risks, examples and the main reasons why countries choose a particular system over another. I discuss these in detail in the sections that follow.