EC ENDS ROPAA TOUR

The Electoral Commission (EC) Representation of the People’s Amendment Act (ROPAA) Consultative and Implementation Committee has  completed a regional consultation and engagement with local stakeholders and civil society organizations.

The EC ROPAA Committee  engaged political parties representations, traditional authorities, religious leaders, and the media from February 18 at Sekondi, Western Region; February 19 at Cape Coast, Central Region; and February 21 at Koforidua, Eastern Region and the Volta Region.

The committee also met opinion leaders ,chiefs ,religious leaders and Media practitioners from Ashanti Region; Bono  Region;, Upper East Region;, Northern Region and  Upper West Region.

The committee has been tasked to research on countries that were implementing ROPAA and how it had been implemented there.

A  technical group   is also to be put in place to draft regulations for external voting which will eventually be passed into a constitutional instrument by Parliament before  the end of December, 2019,”.

The Chairman of the committee, Dr Bossman Asare, who is also a Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Services,in an interview with Peacefm  disclosed that, the committee would proceed to conduct a research in other countries where nationals staying abroad are given the opportunity to vote during elections to ascertain how it is implemented.According to Dr Asare, the committee was expected to produce a report to the commission, spelling out the modalities for the implementation of the Act at the end of the exercise.He said the consultation was aimed at ensuring proper implementation of the Act and making it transparent to all political parties and the public.

Dr Eric Bossman Asare, said though the ROPAA is confronted with several challenges which has delayed its implementation process, the engagements was needed to  facilitate  successful implementation.

Other members of Committee include, Mr Christian Owusu-Parry, EC Director of Administration as the Secretary.

Other Members of the Committee include Mrs Adwoa Abrefa Asuama, EC Member; Mr John Boadu, General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP); and Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

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.