NACC-NDC Resolution On The Right To Vote By Ghanaians Living Outside Ghana.

The Strategy Session of the North America Coordinating Council of the National Democratic Congress of Ghana (NACC-NDC) which took place on Saturday, July 23, 2005, at the Holiday Inn, Exit 12, New Jersey Turnpike, United States of America, considered the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill introduced before the august Parliament of Ghana by the Attorney General and on the verge of being rammed through by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of President John Kufuor, hereby resolve as follows:

The North America Coordinating Council of NDC acknowledges the right of every Ghanaian to vote under Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution, but that right to vote must not be a carte blanche by the ruling NPP government to blatantly and unfairly exploit the electoral process in their favour. In this light, the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill in its current form being pushed by the NPP government in Parliament is clearly a diabolical instrument calculated to rig the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections.

NACC-NDC observes with extreme concern the inability of NPP Government to fund Electoral processes within Ghana, relying on donor countries for almost half of the electoral budget with a real issue of additional financing not assured and unable to identify all eligible Ghanaians by simple mechanism such as mandatory Social Security Numbers.

NACC-NDC notes that the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill in its current form does not guarantee the right of all Ghanaians living in as many as one hundred countries such as the USA, Canada, Togo, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Benin, Niger, Libya, Cote D'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Holland, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Russia, Switzerland, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, etc the right to vote in free and fair elections. The Representation of People (Amendment) Bill is skewed in favor of New Patriotic Party supporters resident in certain geographical areas of the world.

NACC-NDC recognizes that under Article 45 (e) of the 1992 Constitution, it is the function of the Electoral Commission to undertake programmes for the expansion of the registration of voters. That being the case, we take the position that it is “the Electoral Commission which in collaboration with the Inter Party Advisory Committee” should spearhead the task of adopting appropriate rules and regulations in addition to logistics facilities to expand the voters register outside Ghana to enable all Ghanaians living outside Ghana to vote in a free and fair manner.

Pursuant to the aforementioned, the Strategy Session of NACC-NDC having met on Saturday, July 23, 2005, immediately calls upon the NPP government of President John Kufuor to desist from imperiling the constitutional democracy of Ghana by withdrawing the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill currently before Parliament. That the matter of rules and regulations for Ghanaians living outside Ghana to vote must expeditiously be referred to the Electoral Commission and the Inter Party Advisory Committee for due consideration.

Long Live the National Democratic Congress of Ghana.

Long Live the Freedom and Democracy of Ghana and Africa.