Editorial: The Death Of ROPAA

Deliberate Action; Dangerous Signals

This week, the Daily Graphic, the semi-Government newspaper in Ghana carried a story attributing a statement to an unnamed official at Ghana’s Electoral Commission that the Representation of the People Amendment Act (ROPAA), the law that grants the constitutional right to vote to overseas-resident Ghanaians which was passed with all fanfare in February 2006, will not be implemented for the forthcoming general elections in Ghana in December, 2008. Up to this point of going to press, the said statement by the unnamed official of the Electoral Commission has neither been officially confirmed or denied by the Electoral Commission.

Ironically, all top officials of the main political parties, including the government party that passed the law have hailed this “decision” by the Electoral Commission as a “victory”. The main opposition party, the NDC, which fought tooth and nail to block the passage of the law has been celebrating what they see as the official “death” of ROPAA. The NDC has been charging all along that the government introduced this law as part of its designs to rig the 2008 elections. In the fierce propaganda war that it has waged so far on the law, we can rightfully and sadly say that the NDC has won a major victory.

We have suspected all along that the NPP government had no intention of actually getting this law to work. They tried, half-heartedly to pass this law in a very confused manner in early 2004 only to let it die through procedural wrangling in Parliament. They resurrected the Bill again during its second mandate in 2005 after intense pressure and lobbying from overseas-resident Ghanaians notably in Canada and USA which included the storming of Ghana by a powerful delegation from the USA-Canada-based Diaspora Vote Committee (DVC). After a two-week information campaign and lobbying in Ghana by the delegation of the DVC in October 2005, the NPP government gave in and pushed the Bill into law on February 23, 2006 which was immediately assented to by the President.

However, pronouncements by top government and NPP officials since the passage of the law have lent credence to the suspicion that the government has no intention of letting the law work today, tomorrow or ever. Just a month after the passage of the ROPAA, then Foreign Minister and now NPP Presidential candidate, Nana Akufo Addo told a gathering of Ghanaians in London, England that despite the passage of the law, Ghanaians living overseas should wait until “much later” before they can even dream of voting in elections in Ghana. This was from a senior member of the same government that passed the law. Since then, other top NPP officials notably its Chairman, Mac Manu have publicly expressed their opposition to the implementation of the law for the 2008 elections. In all their pronouncements they always add that the implementation is the prerogative of the Electoral Commission, but the NPP and its government have done everything possible to ensure that the Electoral Commission does not have the necessary tools to implement the Law. The government deliberately omitted or refused to provide the necessary funding allocation in its 2008 Budget for the implementation of ROPPA by the Electoral Commission.

The “statement” from an unnamed official at the Electoral Commission alluding to its inability to implement ROPAA this year, in effect denying Ghanaians abroad the right to vote in the 2008 elections, should therefore be seen as a carefully planned shameful, exit strategy from ROPAA by the NPP government. It has in effect conceded defeat to the constant bombardment and harassment of the NDC. This is a shameful action against the democratic and constitutional rights of overseas-resident Ghanaians. It goes further to prove that the governments and people resident in Ghana do not give a damn about the rights of Ghanaians living abroad. They are only interested in the financial and material contributions Ghanaians abroad make to the economy of the country.

The NPP and the NDC and all those in Ghana that have killed the implementation of this law should know that they will pay the price for these evil machinations one day in their political lives. Ghanaians living abroad should forget about their treasured dream to vote in elections in Ghana. It will never happen as long as all these dishonest people run the political shows in Ghana, no matter what party colors they wear!!