Constitutional review: NPP calls for constituent assembly before referendum

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has rejected the government’s proposed approach to the ongoing constitutional amendment process, calling instead for the establishment of a constituent or consultative assembly before the proposed amendments are taken to Parliament or for a referendum.

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Chairman of the NPP’s Policy Committee, said the party would oppose what he described as an attempt to bundle the government’s preferred amendments into a referendum without further broad-based deliberation.

He said the party’s position was informed by the scale of the proposed changes and the need to secure broad political and public agreement on reforms to the 1992 Constitution.

Oppong Nkrumah made the comments at a press conference on Thursday, September 17, where the party presented its position paper on the ongoing constitutional amendments.

“Any effort to bundle the government's preferred amendment into a referendum as one question or several questions will not receive the support of the New Patriotic Party," the former Information Minister said.

He said the NPP would oppose both the proposed referendum process and the corresponding bills in Parliament if the government proceeded without establishing a deliberative body.

He referred to Article 290 of the Constitution, which provides that a referendum on an entrenched constitutional provision requires at least 40% of registered voters to vote and at least 75% of votes cast to support the amendment.

Oppong Nkrumah argued that the thresholds were deliberately included to ensure that entrenched provisions could not be changed by one political party acting alone.

He said the NPP is not opposed to constitutional reform but wanted the process to involve political parties, organised labour, professional bodies, traditional authorities, religious groups, students, traders, farmers, persons with disabilities, civil society and other stakeholders.

“The constitution is not the property of the NDC or the NPP. It belongs to the people of Ghana, and every government must govern under it. That is why its amendment cannot be a partisan exercise," he noted.

Background
The government’s position follows the work of the Constitution Review Committee, which was appointed by President John Dramani Mahama in January 2025 to undertake a comprehensive review of the 1992 Constitution.

The committee's recommendations contain 147 proposed amendments to existing constitutional provisions and 59 entirely new provisions, bringing the total to 206 proposals.

The government has accepted several of the recommendations, including proposals for five-year presidential and parliamentary terms, elected District Chief Executives, a citizen-initiative mechanism for constitutional amendments and the abolition of the death penalty.

The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, subsequently inaugurated an 11-member Constitution Review Implementation Committee on August 31 to advance the proposals.

The committee is chaired by Presidential Legal Counsel and former Attorney-General Marietta Agyeiwaa Brew.