Editorial: Let’s heed President’s call on ROPAL

The need to extend the ballot box to every Ghanaian living abroad is a constitutional provision that must be met. This need was reinforced in the 1996 State of the Nation Address delivered by former President J.J. Rawlings.

On January 31, 2006, former President J. A. Kufuor, in his State of the Nation Address, also declared the readiness of the government to push ahead with the passage of the Representation of the People's Amendment Bill (ROPAB).

Then on February 24, 2006, the law on ROPAB was passed by Parliament, during one of the most eventful sessions in the country's parliamentary history, and assented to by the President, Mr Kufuor.

The nation is now awaiting the Electoral Commission, as the implementing body, to make ready the necessary regulation’s for its implementation.

Speaking during a meeting with the Ghanaian community in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States of America last Saturday, President John Dramani Mahama urged Ghanaians in the diaspora to make a strong case to the Electoral Commission (EC) to implement the law, Representation of the People’s Amendment Law (ROPAL).

According to the President, the directive issued by the Supreme Court in its ruling on the 2012 Presidential Election Petition to the EC to make reforms in its operations provides a good opportunity for Ghanaians living abroad to forcefully put their case before the EC to extend voting rights to them.

The Daily Graphic would like to add its voice to the President’s call for all Ghanaians to exert pressure on the EC to implement the bill to allow Ghanaians living abroad to exercise their franchise in general elections conducted in Ghana.

It is heart-warming that the President also stated that the government would be able to provide funds for the exercise if the EC decided on the implementation.

All along the EC has attributed its inability to implement the law to lack of funds, but now that the President has given a promise of giving the cash, nothing should stop the EC from putting in place the needed rules and regulations and go for the appropriate funds to implement this provision.

Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution states that “every citizen of Ghana of eighteen years of age or above and of sound mind has the right to vote and is entitled to be registered as a voter for the purposes of public elections and referenda’’. 

Though this right has been duly observed under the 1992 democratic dispensation, the only Ghanaians living abroad who have benefited from diasporan voting are those working in Ghanaian missions abroad (and their spouses), the United Nations or any other international organisations, as well as students studying under government scholarships. 

Over time, many Ghanaians now see the need for such a provision to cover all Ghanaians, even though at the outset, ROPAL was considered by a section of the populace as useless, controversial and unachievable. They argued that it was difficult to carry out ROPAL fairly and would yield nothing if it was successfully done, yet it might bring mayhem if it was not done fairly. 

To overcome this pessimism, the Daily Graphic would like to urge the EC to, as a matter of urgency, involve all stakeholders to complete the regulatory framework and modalities, if it has not done so already, and sensitise the Ghanaian electorate by way of public education.  

We see the President’s reminder as very timely, since Ghanaians abroad could not exercise their franchise in the 2008 and 2012 general elections although the law had been passed.  

The right to vote has been enshrined in the 1992 Constitution and has nothing to do with one’s geographical location. Therefore, its continued delay is an absolute denial of  a right and unconstitutional.

No Ghanaian, irrespective of their status, should be discriminated against in any way in respect of their right to vote and this is what the nation must work towards if we are to deepen democracy and good governance.