By Francis Ameyibor, GNA
Koforidua, Feb. 20, GNA – The Eastern Region would host the third Regional Consultation on the Implementation of the Representation of the People Amendment Act (ROPAA) 2006 (Act699), on February 21, at Koforidua.
The ROPAA Implementation Committee headed by Dr Bossman Eric Asare, Electoral Commission Deputy Chairman in Charge of Corporate Services in fulfilment of the EC Constitutional mandate to implement the law, started engagement of stakeholders in the Western and Central Regions to solicit for their views.
Other members of EC ROPAA Committee include; Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mrs Adwoa Abrefa Asuama, EC Member, and Mr John Boadu, General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The rest are; Reverend Dr Ernest Adu Gyamfi of the National Peace Council, Professor Ransford Gyampo of the University of Ghana, and Dr Kojo Asante of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, and Mr Kofi Akpaloo, representing the other minority parties.
Representatives from the political parties Security Services, Civil Society Organisations, Traditional and Religious Leaders, People with Disability, Media Practitioners, and a cross section of the public are expected to discuss issues requirements for registration, authentication of resident permit, and registration centres and polling stations.
Other issues being discussed include; appointment of registration and election officials, mode and frequency of registration, designs of registration forms, challenges at registration, handling registration challenges, petition against decisions of the overseas registration review committees and exhibition of the voters register.
Meanwhile Mrs Jean Mensa, EC Chairperson said the implementation of ROPAA required that the Commission put together regulations, in the form of a Constitutional Instrument (CI), to regulate the registration of voters and the conduct of elections in foreign countries.
She said at the end of the work of the ROPAA Consultative and Implementation Committee, a technical group would be constituted to draft regulations for external voting, then it would eventually be passed into a Constitutional Instrument (CI) by Parliament by the close of December 2019.
The EC Chairperson said "It has been 12 years since ROPAA became law, but Ghanaian citizens living outside the country are yet to benefit from the opportunities presented by ROPAA.
"This is because of the obvious challenges that are likely to be encountered in the implementation of ROPAA".
Mrs Mensa recalled that in the past, attempts were made by the EC, under the leadership of Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan to find a way of implementing ROPAA that would be acceptable to all stakeholders, by setting up a committee in 2011 to make recommendations for the ROPAA implementation.
"Seven years on, the right to be registered as a voter and to vote in public elections and referenda remains elusive to the Ghanaian living outside Ghana,” she said.
Mrs Mensa said a lot has changed since the Committee set up by Dr Afari-Gyan presented its report; stating that, it was necessary that in trying to implement ROPAA now, stakeholders take into account the new developments in Ghana's electoral process.
She said it was for this reason that the Consultative and Implementation Committee was being formed to continue with the process after it was put on hold from 2011.
It would be recalled that the following advocacy by interest groups, a Bill was introduced in Parliament in 2006, the Representative of the People Amendment Bill (ROPAB) to amend the representation of the People's Law of 1992 PDNC Law 284.
The PNDC Law 284 did not make provision for Ghanaian citizens other than persons working in Ghana's diplomatic missions, persons working with international organisations of which Ghana was a member and Ghanaian students on Government scholarship, to be registered in the countries where they resided.
The ROPAA, Act 2006, ACT 699 was therefore passed to extend the right of the Ghanaian to participate in voting in public elections and referenda to Ghanaians living outside Ghana.
GNA
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