ROPAA Constitutional Instrument makes it to Parliament

The constitutional Instrument (CI) for the implementation of the Representation of the People Amendment Act (ROPAA) has been presented to Ghana’s Parliament. This declaration was made by Dr. Bossman Asare, Deputy Electoral Commissioner who doubles as the Chairman of the ROPAA Implementation Committee.

During a chat with DNT News, Dr. Asare indicated that the CI has made it to the legislature and “Parliament will have a pre-laying meeting on it next month.” Documents submitted to Parliament for consideration, be they a Bill or a CI, need to be gazetted. Then fourteen days later they are laid in Parliament to pave the way for members to view them.

You may recall that on March 26, DNT reported that the ROPAA Constitutional Instrument has been submitted to the Attorney General of Ghana for review in preparation for the EC to formally submit it to Parliament for approval. With the submission to Parliament and being at the pre-laying stage, it appears fears that the AG would sit on the CI was unfounded, and ROPAA may well be on its way to being implemented in the 2020 general elections.

In the case of the Constitutional Instrument, unlike other bills that have to be voted on, Parliament needs not do anything for it to become law. After 21 days of it having been laid, it becomes the law barring any member challenging it.

Members of the Ghanaian diaspora have agitated as to why ROPAA has not been implemented despite being passed and signed into law in 2006. Meanwhile they have seen their counterparts from Mali, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and other African countries voting in their nation elections some as far back as 1999.

DNT News