QUALIFICATION AND ELIGIBILITY OF AN MP

 (1) Subject to the provisions of this article, a person shall not be qualified to be a Member of Parliament unless—

(a) He is a citizen of Ghana, has attained the age of twenty-one years and is a registered voter.

(b) He is resident in the constituency for which he stands as a candidate for election to Parliament or has resided there for a total period of not less than five years out of the ten years immediately preceding the election for which he stands, or he hails from that constituency; and

(c) He has paid all his taxes or made arrangements satisfactory to the appropriate authority for the payment of his taxes.

(2) A person shall not be qualified to be a Member of Parliament if he—

(a)Owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana; or

(b) Has been adjudged or otherwise declared.

(i) Bankrupt under any law in force in Ghana and has not been discharged; or

(ii) To be of unsound mind or is detained as a criminal lunatic under any law in force in Ghana; or

(c) Has been convicted—

(i) For high crime under this Constitution or high treason or treason or for an offence involving the security of the State, fraud, dishonesty or moral turpitude; or

(ii) For any other offence punishable by death or by a sentence of not less than ten years; or

(iii) For an offence relating to, or connected with election under a law in force in Ghana at any time; or

(d) Has been found by the report of a commission or a committee of inquiry to be incompetent to hold public office or is a person in respect of whom a commission or committee of inquiry has found that while being a public officer he acquired assets unlawfully or defrauded the State or misused or abused his office, or willfully acted in a manner prejudicial to the interest of the State, and the findings have not

been set aside on appeal or judicial review; or

(e) Is under sentence of death or other sentence of imprisonment imposed on him by any court., or

(f) Is not qualified to be registered as a voter under any law relating to public elections; or

(g) Is otherwise disqualified by a law in force at the time of the coming into force of this Constitution, not being inconsistent with a provision of this Constitution.

(3) A person shall not be eligible to be a Member of Parliament if he—

(a) Is prohibited from standing election by a law in force in Ghana by reason of his holding or acting in an office the functions of which involve a responsibility for or are connected with the conduct of, an election or responsibility for the compilation or revision of an electoral register, or

(b) Is a member of the Police Service, the Prisons Service, the Armed Forces, the Judicial Service, the Legal Service, the Civil Service, the Audit Service, the Parliamentary Service, the Statistical Service, the Fire Service, the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, the Immigration Service, or the Internal Revenue Service; or

(c) Is a chief.

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (d) of clause (2) of this article, in the case of any finding made by a commission or committee of inquiry which is not a judicial or quasi-judicial commission or committee of inquiry, without prejudice to any appeal against or judicial review of that finding, the finding shall not have the effect of disqualifying a person under that paragraph unless it has been confirmed by a Government white paper.

(5) A person shall not be taken to be disqualified to be a Member of Parliament under paragraph (c) or

(d) of clause (2) of this article if—

(a) Ten years or more have passed since the end of the sentence or the date of the publication of the report of the commission or committee of inquiry; or

(b) He has been pardoned.