Dr. Asare Bossman – Deputy Chairperson of EC
THE ELECTORAL Commission (EC) has assured that it will work assiduously to draft regulations to be passed into a Constitutional Instrument (CI) by Parliament this year for the smooth implementation of the Representation of People Amendment Act (ROPAA) 2006, Act 699 ahead of the 2020 general election.
Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, who announced this, said the nine-member committee set up to come up with a road map for external voting has a deadline to meet.
Speaking at a stakeholder engagement on the implementation of ROPAA at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region on Monday, he indicated that the CI was expected to be in place by the end of this year, but quickly added that the EC could not determine its passage.
He disclosed that the constitutional instrument takes a life of its own once it is presented to parliament.
He observed the Commission’s unweaving commitment to implement ROPAA in one year as directed by the Accra High Court in December 2017.
The EC recently established a nine-member committee made up of representatives from the commission, political parties and civil society organisations to develop a detailed plan for ROPAA implementation.
The committee chaired by Dr. Bossman Asare, is on consultative tours across the country and beyond to deliver on its mandate.
It has Adjoa Abrefa Asuama and Christian Owusu-Parry from the electoral management body as members beside Dr Bossman Asare, with John Boadu, of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Benjamin Kumbour, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Kofi Percival Apaloo of the
Independent People’s Party (IPP) as members as well.
The rest are Dr Kojo Asante of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Professor Ransford Gyampo of the University of Ghana, and Rev Dr Ernest Adu-Gyamfi of the National Peace Council (NPC).
Majority of the participants indicated that even though ROPAA demands for every Ghanaian to be allowed to vote, franchise cannot be extended to every country where there is a Ghanaian because of resource constraint.
According to participants, registration centres and polling stations should be set up in countries where Ghana has diplomatic missions and where the country’s ambassadors have concurrent accreditation.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi