ROPAA to be implemented for 2020 Ghana elections

KOFI AYIM

Dr. Bossman E. Asare, Deputy Chairman, Corporate Services of Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC), has assured Ghanaians living outside Ghana that the EC has no choice but to forge ahead and implement the Representation of the People Amendment Act (ROPAA)- passed by Ghana’s Parliament on February 24, 2006, for Ghana’s 2020 elections. Article 699 of ROPAA amended the Representation of the People Law (PNDCL 284) passed in 1992 that allowed a select few Ghanaians such as diplomats, employees of Ghana Missions, and those on UN assignments to exercise their right of suffrage. Dr. Bossman, who is also the Chairman of Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) of the Representation of the People Amendment Act (ROPAA), pointed out that ROPAA is included in the 2020 budget of the Electoral Commission.

In a Town Hall meeting organized by the Progressive Alliance Movement (PAM) at the Ghana United Methodist Church in the Bronx on November 2, 2019, Dr. Bossman, who led a delegation to the U.S., observed that their international tours and consultations were to solicit inputs that would hopefully operationalize Best Practice Methods for ROPAA implementation. The visit was also to complement marathon consultations held across Ghana. The consultations in Ghana portrayed overwhelming support for ROPAA implementation, according to Dr. Bossman. He emphasized that inputs from Ghanaians

living abroad are imperative for a Constitutional Instrument (CI) for the December 2020 elections in Ghana, of which ROPAA is an integral part. The CI goes before Parliament in January 2020. The lively audience engaged the delegation on wide areas of discussions, including but not limited to: who qualifies to vote, registration and voting centers, returning and related electoral officials, and types of elections (presidential, general etc.) in which to participate. Earlier, Dr. Kofi Boateng (aka Kofi ROPAA) elaborately traced the timeline of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution on Representation of the People Article 42, which eventually metamorphosed into ROPAA.

Ghana’s Electoral Commission ROPAA Committee has nine members, eight of whom were present at the event. They were: Dr. Bossman E. Asare, Chairman, Rev. Dr. Ernest Adu Gyamfi (representative of National Peace Council), Mr. Kofi Akpaloo (representative of the Liberal Party of Ghana), Mrs. Sylvia Annoh (Acting Communications Director, Electoral Commission), Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante (Centre for Democratic Development &representative of Civil Societies), Mr. Evans Nimako (representative of the National Patriotic Party), Mr. Christian Owusu Parry (ROPAA Committee Secretary), and Mr. Samuel Tettey (Deputy Chairman, Operations, Electoral Commission). Also present at the event were Prof. Emeritus Samuel K. Amoako, Ghana’s Consul General in New York, representatives of Ghanaian civic and religious associations, and the media. The delegation, which has since returned home, also visited some other cities in the U.S. under the auspices of PAM. The event host was Ms. Catherine Cudjoe, CEO of PAM.

Posted by on Nov 13 2019. Filed under top stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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