News:
September 18, 2026
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has described the government’s handling of Ghana’s ongoing constitutional review as an attempt to fundamentally remake the 1992 Constitution, arguing that the proposed changes are too extensive to be treated as ordinary amendments under Chapter 25.
At a press briefing in Accra, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Chairman of the NPP Policy Coordination Committee, said the Constitution Review Committee (CRC) had recommended amendments to 147 of the Constitution’s 299 articles and proposed 59 entirely new provisions—206 propositions in total. He said the proposals affect the Executive, Parliament, the Judiciary, independent constitutional institutions and local government.
Oppong Nkrumah argued that changing nearly half of the existing constitutional provisions while introducing dozens of new ones amounted to a major alteration of Ghana’s constitutional framework. He said the NPP accepts that some provisions need to be amended to strengthen accountability, deepen decentralisation and modernise public institutions. However, he insisted the scale of the exercise demands a process beyond government drafting, parliamentary consideration and a referendum.
He also raised concerns about differences between the CRC’s recommendations and the government’s position. According to him, of the 147 recommendations, the government fully accepted 22, partially accepted 25, and took a different position on the rest. The government has separately explained that its position paper reflects its consideration of the CRC’s proposals and includes both accepted recommendations and alternative positions.
Oppong Nkrumah warned that the absence of a formal platform for political parties and other stakeholders to negotiate disagreements could weaken consensus around the final reforms. He called for a Constituent or Consultative Assembly to deliberate on the proposals before they are turned into final legislative and referendum measures, saying the exercise should produce a broadly negotiated constitutional settlement rather than a document identified mainly with the government of the day.
Ghanamps.com