GHANA'S EXPATRIATE VOTING BILL: THE CONTROVERSY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 001205

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/23/2017
TAGS: GH PGOV PHUM
SUBJECT: GHANA'S EXPATRIATE VOTING BILL: THE CONTROVERSY
CONTINUES


Classified By: PolChief Scott Ticknor for reasons 1.4 (d) and (e)


1. (C) Summary: In a May 23 meeting with PolChief,
Electoral Commission (EC) Deputy Chairman Kwadwo
Sarfo-Kantanka said the Electoral Commission is preparing for
eventual implementation of the controversial Representation
of the People Amendment (ROPA) bill, which gives Ghanaian
citizens living abroad the right to vote. While the EC has
not yet decided whether the bill will be implemented for the
2008 election, there is mounting pressure from the NPP to do
so. The NDC strongly opposes implementation for the next
election and recently stormed out of an EC meeting to discuss
the issue. Simmering for the past year, this issue is once
again in the local political and media spotlight and has the
potential to spur a political confrontation in the run-up to

2008. End summary.

A Study Tour
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2. (U) The Electoral Commission (EC) has been studying how
similar bills allowing expatriate citizens to vote have been
implemented in other countries (especially Mexico and
Botswana) and plans a study tour to the Philippines, Mali,
Netherlands, South Africa and Botswana as part of this
research, according to Sarfo-Kantanka. He added that so far
the research suggests that implementing expatriate voting has
been very costly, with very little voter participation.
A Constitutional Instrument
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3. (SBU) The EC Deputy Chairman told PolChief the very short
ROPA bill is a "skeleton law," which requires a
constitutional instrument (CI) for implementation. According
to Sarfo-Kantanka, the EC is required by law to implement
ROPA, although the time-frame for implementation is left to
the discretion of the EC. The EC is working on a CI which it
hopes to submit to parliament in July or August 2007. If
parliament passes the CI and the money is available, the EC
"would have no reason not to implement the law," he said. He
estimated implementation would cost around $3 million, all of
it by law coming from the GOG Consolidated Fund (which
includes donor support). Sarfo-Kantanka thought this was
much more expensive than President Kufuor and the Castle
realized.

Preparing Overseas Missions
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4. (SBU) EC officials plan to travel soon to explore
establishing at least one polling station at each of Ghana's
48 overseas Missions (including honorary consuls),he said.
The EC plans to begin a registration exercise for expatriate
Ghanaians in the first quarter of 2008 in any location with
at least 500 Ghanaian citizens. The EC will probably select
the second-highest ranking career diplomat at each post to
administer the election, thereby helping to insulate voting
from partisan influence, he said. Once ROPA is implemented,
he does not expect high overseas voter turnout because of the
distances many Ghanaians abroad will have to travel to the
polling booth and because he thought many illegal Ghanaians
would not want to reveal themselves to authorities.

Some in NPP Pushing
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5. (SBU) In the past month, three expatriate Ghanaians have
filed lawsuits trying to force the EC to implement the law.
(Sarfo-Kantanka dismissed these suits as having no basis,
since the law does not set a date for implementation and the
EC is making good faith efforts to move forward with eventual
expatriate voting.) Foreign Minister (and NPP presidential
aspirant) Nana Akufo-Addo recently publicly urged
implementation of the law. Attorney General Joe Ghartey
recently concurred that the EC is legally required to
implement a law such as ROPA as soon as possible. There are
others in the NPP who want to implement the law for the 2008
election; however, some in the NPP do not. NPP National
Organizer Lord Commey told PolChief he did not think Ghana
was politically ready for implementing this law in the next
election. Majority Leader and Minister of Parliament (and
presidential candidate) Felix Owusu-Adjepong has recently
stated that the law should not be implemented in 2008. In a
May 23 meeting with the Ghanaian community in Belgium,
President Kufuor reportedly also said ROPA may not be
implemented for the 2008 election, since Ghana lacks a

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national identity card or biometric passports, which would
help raise confidence in the integrity of overseas voting.

NDC Remains Opposed
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6. (SBU) The main opposition National Democratic Congress
(NDC) party remains strongly opposed to implementation of the
ROPA law for the 2008 election. In discussions with poloffs,
NDC leaders have said that they are not opposed to the
principle of expatriate voting but suspect that the NPP wants
to implement it in a way which will rig votes in the 2008
election. The EC called its first Inter-Party Advisory
Committee (IPAC) meeting in three years on May 17 primarily
to discuss implementation of the ROPA bill. At the meeting,
EC Chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan acknowledged that 100 percent
registration and polling of Ghanaians abroad was impossible,
proposing instead to limit polling to ECOWAS countries, other
countries where Ghana had diplomatic representation, and
locations where there were at least 500 Ghanaians. NDC
attendees questioned the constitutionality of the bill and
the even-handedness of the proposed polling officers. After
an hour of verbal jousting, the NDC members (including the
party Chairman) stormed out of the meeting.


7. (SBU) Sarfo-Kantanka later told PolChief that NDC
leaders reassured him they were not opposed to the bill in
principle but felt strongly that implementation should wait
until after the 2008 election. He mused on the irony that
the NDC supported expatriate voting when the issue came up in
1998 (when they were in power),while the NPP at the time
opposed it. NDC leaders told him that the party felt it had
to walk out of the IPAC meeting to "save face" because it had
walked out of the parliamentary session when the ROPA bill
was passed.

Comment
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8. (C) The ROPA bill remains a hot button issue in Ghanaian
politics. Discussion of ROPA appeared to die down for many
months, in the face of opposition party objections and an
opposition demonstration. However, the recent lawsuits and
statement from the Foreign Minister, as well as the recent
hastily called IPAC meeting and heavy debate in the media
have returned the issue to center stage. The EC is obviously
planning for eventual implementation of the bill and
officials in both major parties are planning trips to the
U.S. in the coming months. Some in the NPP are no doubt
reviving ROPA to show their financial and political backers
abroad that, as the NPP heads into its December party
convention, the GOG is trying to deliver on this campaign
promise. The NDC is ever-suspicious of the NPP and further
progress toward implementing ROPA in 2008 would move Ghana
closer to a political confrontation. However, the NPP
realizes this and, while the stakes are high, many in the
party believe they can win without expatriate votes. Kufuor
has been a strong proponent of ROPA but his remarks in
Belgium last week suggest that the NPP may not push this to a
show-down.
BRIDGEWATER