{"id":2442,"date":"2019-02-06T12:25:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T12:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aptnewsghana.com\/?p=2442"},"modified":"2019-02-06T12:25:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T12:25:54","slug":"ropal-committee-meets-to-work-out-modalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aptnewsghana.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/06\/ropal-committee-meets-to-work-out-modalities\/","title":{"rendered":"ROPAL committee meets to work out modalities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The committee to work out the modalities for the implementation of the Representation of the People\u2019s (Amendment) Law – ROPAL has identified three key actions for a successful roll-out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are public fora in all regions to solicit inputs into the operationalisation of the law, extension of the consultations to Ghanaians living in the Diaspora<\/a> and visits to four countries that are currently implementing external voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The selected countries are the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom, Mali and South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the first meeting of the committee, set up by the Chairperson of \nthe Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Jean Mensa, yesterday, the members \nalso agreed to issue out a public notice requesting written submissions \nfrom members of the public towards the successful implementation of the \nlaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee, which is chaired by the Deputy Chairperson of the EC in charge of Administration, Mr Eric Bossman Asare, said it would later announce dates for the fora with various stakeholders in all the regions to solicit inputs from all Ghanaians into the operationalisation of the law, in accordance with a High Court ruling of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Providing the background to the meeting, the Secretary to the \ncommittee, Mr Christian Owusu Parry, said ROPAL was already a law which \nthe EC was mandated to implement, adding that the law was passed in 2006\n but little was done with it between 2008 and 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said a previous committee set up to make recommendations on the \nway forward for the EC submitted its report in September 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since that time, he recounted, nothing had been done until some \naggrieved persons went to court to compel the EC to implement the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the court ruling for the law to be implemented, Mrs Mensa set up another committee to study what had been done and take into account changes that had taken place in the country\u2019s electoral system since then in order to have a current and updated way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presentation of report<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee, Mr Parry said, was expected to present its report by the end of June this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, at yesterday\u2019s meeting, members of the committee expressed \nworry about the deadline for the presentation of a report, considering \nthe exhaustive stakeholder consultations that had to be done, both in \nGhana and abroad, as well as visits to the four countries that practised\n similar external voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, the ruling of the court had given a 20-month duration, which \nexpired last month, for the EC to have come up with a road map for the \nimplementation of ROPAL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failure to do so, the EC was instructed by the High Court to make a \npublic announcement over its inability to meet that deadline and \nannounce a new deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public announcement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was, therefore, the view of the committee that steps be taken to \nmake a public announcement to that effect as the committee put in the \nrequired efforts to comply with other directives as contained in the \nHigh Court ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That view was particularly articulated by the Chairperson of the Civic Initiative Forum, Major General Nii Carl Coleman (retd).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some issues that bordered on the practicality of the implementation \nof the law came up at the meeting. Among them was how to register \nGhanaians for elections, since it was obvious that Ghanaians could be \nfound almost everywhere in the world, a matter that posed a challenge in\n view of financial implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also came up that the High Court ruling had been unduly harsh on \nthe EC. For instance, in the event of incidents of electoral fraud \ntaking place in those countries where ROPAL would be undertaken, the \nissue of jurisdiction regarding the arrest and prosecution of those \npersons might constitute a major challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Requirements for registration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the requirements for a person living abroad to be registered, one \nof the conditions, as stated in the ROPAL, was that such persons had to \nprovide other forms of identity, in addition to valid resident permits \nin that country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the representative of the smaller parties on the committee, the \nLeader and Founder of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Mr Percival Kofi\n Akpaloo, was of the view that that requirement had to be taken out \nbecause there was a good number of Ghanaians living as illegal \nimmigrants in foreign lands but whose regular remittances to Ghana had \ncontributed substantially to the national economy and could, therefore, \nnot be disregarded because of the lack of a valid resident permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting then came to a consensus that eligible voters must have valid Ghanaian passports and Ghana cards, stressing that those two should suffice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit: graphic.com.gh<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The committee to work out the modalities for the implementation of the Representation of the People\u2019s (Amendment) Law – ROPAL has identified three key actions […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[88,322],"class_list":["post-2442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-ec","tag-ropal"],"yoast_head":"\nROPAL committee meets to work out modalities - Apt News Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ROPAL ...members also agreed to issue out a public notice requesting written submissions from members of the public towards the successful...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aptnewsghana.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/06\/ropal-committee-meets-to-work-out-modalities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ROPAL committee meets to work out modalities - 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