Five Ghanaians in USA want ROPAA implemented

Five ghanaians living in the United States of America (USA) have dragged the Electoral Commission (EC) to court over delays in the implementation of the Representation of the People Amendment Act 2006 (Act 699).

The applicants want the Human Rights Division of the High Court to compel the EC to implement the Act this election year to enable Ghanaians living abroad to register and exercise their franchise in public elections.

The five applicants are: Dr Kofi A. Boateng , Mr Agyenim Boateng, Ms Nellie Kemevor, Mr Obed Danquah and Ms Christiana Sillim.

A legal practitioner, Mr Samson Lardy Anyenini, filed the motion for the enforcement of the fundamental human rights of the applicants, who are all members of the Progressive Alliance Movement (PAM), a non-political and non-ethnic advocacy group based in New York City.

Background

In October 2005 and November 2005, two delegations of Ghanaians Living Abroad, in the USA, Europe, Southern Africa, West Africa and Canada, led by the first applicant, Dr Kofi A. Boateng, arrived in Ghana to add their voices to the then raging parliamentary debate on amending Ghana’s Representation of the People Law (PNDCL 284). 

The intended amendment was to among other issues, change Section 8 of PNDCL 284, which restricted overseas voting to only Ghanaian employees of the Republic, the United Nations, and other international organisations.

It also aimed at removing the requirement in Section 7 of PNDCL 284 that locally, in order to register to vote, one must have continuously inhabited an area for six months leading to the date of qualification. 

This eventually led to the passage of Act 699, which gives the right to Ghanaians living abroad other than foreign mission workers and students to partake in electoral processes in Ghana, irrespective of their destination.

The inability and or failure of the EC to implement Act 699 has resulted in the filing of this present lawsuit.

Reliefs

The applicants are seeking the immediate implementation of the 2006 Representation of the People Amendment Act (Act 699) to enable them to cast their ballots on November 7, 2016; a date set by the EC for the conduct of this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

According to them, “this is the law that permits hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians Living Abroad (GLAs) to register and to vote as per Article 42 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution that 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.”

They are accordingly seeking a declaration that they (applicants) have fundamental human rights under Articles 17 (2) 42 and 33 (5) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act 2006 (Act 699), Article 13 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Protocol 1 (Article 3) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

“Register us”

The applicants want the court to order the EC to allow them to be registered as voters while they are resident abroad and being outside the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ghana, and doing so from/at their places of residence abroad and designed centres close to their places of residence abroad or from/at the Ghana Mission/Embassy within their jurisdiction.

They also want to be issued voters identity cards to enable them to vote in public elections and referenda while they are resident abroad and outside the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ghana at the time of such elections and doing so from/ at their places of residence abroad or designated centres close to their places of residence abroad or from/at the Ghana Mission/Embassy within their jurisdiction abroad.”

The applicants also want to be given the right to vote in public elections, particularly, presidential and parliamentary elections while they are resident abroad.

Breach of fundamental human rights

The applicants also want the court to declare that the non-compliance of the EC to operationalise Act 699 since it became law on February 24, 2006, was a breach of the fundamental human rights of the applicants under various laws and legal instruments

They also want the court to declare that it is discriminatory for the respondents, particularly the EC, to continue to register abroad to ensure that a category of citizens studying abroad or working in Ghana’s Mission/Embassies abroad vote in public elections and referenda while living abroad, to the exclusion of applicants.

The application will be heard on May 9, 2016 at the Human Rights Division of the High Court.