Cap the size of parliament to 277 – Constitutional Review Consultative Committee

A draft report from the Constitutional Review Consultative Committee has been presented to the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.

The report includes a significant recommendation to cap the size of parliament at 277 members.

The proposed amendment to Article 93 of the Constitution reads: “There shall be a Parliament of Ghana which shall consist of not more than two hundred and seventy-seven elected members.”

This recommendation implies that consequential amendments to Article 47 are necessary to place a numerical cap on the number of constituencies in Ghana.

The suggested amendment to Article 47 states: “Ghana shall be divided into as many constituencies for the purpose of election of Members of Parliament as the Electoral Commission may prescribe, however, the number of constituencies shall not exceed two hundred and seventy-seven.”

The committee, chaired by Clare Kasser-Tee, was established by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, to review the 2011 report of the Constitution Review Commission.

The committee’s mandate includes reviewing submissions, proposals, and reports from various constitutional review platforms such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), University of Ghana Law School, University of Professional Studies (UPSA), and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Additionally, the committee is tasked with making recommendations to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and its partners and collaborators, including the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Africa Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Institute of Democratic and Economic Governance (IDEG), and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), among others.

These recommendations was, on June 13, 2024, presented to the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu for preliminary suggestions of firm resolve of the 1992 Constitution