The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has rejected the government’s current framework for reviewing Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, demanding instead the establishment of an independent Consultative Assembly to lead broad-based national deliberations on all proposed constitutional amendments.
NPP Policy Committee Chairman Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the number and reach of the recommendations made the exercise closer to rewriting the Constitution than making a limited set of amendments.
“The New Patriotic Party therefore rejects this approach being pursued by the NDC government in essentially rewriting the 1992 Constitution,” he told journalists on Thursday, September 17.
The Ofoase/Ayirebi MP said the Constitution Review Committee had proposed changes to 147 of the Constitution’s 299 articles, alongside 59 new provisions.
By the NPP’s calculation, the proposals would touch 206 provisions across the executive, Parliament, local government and independent constitutional bodies.
“That is not just an adjustment to some provisions of the Constitution. They amount to the overhaul of the Constitution and, in substance, the enactment of a new one.” - Mr Oppong Nkrumah
Party questions government’s changes
The NPP also accused the government of departing from about 100 of the committee’s 147 recommendations and replacing them with positions of its own.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said those differences required negotiation before draft amendments were prepared. He claimed the government had instead closed consultations and asked an implementation committee to begin drafting proposals, with the first amendment expected by November 2026.
The Constitution Review Committee was established to examine previous reform proposals, engage stakeholders and recommend changes intended to strengthen Ghana’s governance system. Its complete report and the government’s position paper were published in July 2026.
The NPP argues that publishing the documents was not enough. Political parties, Organised Labour, professional associations and other identifiable groups, it said, still require a formal forum where disputed proposals can be debated and settled.
NPP proposes deliberative assembly
Mr Oppong Nkrumah called on the government to introduce a Constituent or Consultative Assembly Bill in Parliament.
Such legislation, he said, would establish a broad deliberative body and provide a mechanism for resolving the areas where the government and review committee disagree.
He pointed to the constitutional processes of 1969, 1979 and 1992, which combined technical work with deliberations by representative assemblies before final legal action.
“First, the work of an expert deliberated and settled upon by a broad and representative assembly and only then given the force of law,” he said. “That is what we are calling on the government to respect now.”
Some of the review proposals have already stirred debate, including possible changes to presidential and parliamentary terms, the size of Parliament and the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives.
The official review process included public and stakeholder consultations before the committee submitted its recommendations.
The dispute now concerns what should happen after that committee work.
For the NPP, Parliament and the constitutionally required referendum processes cannot substitute for an earlier political settlement on the full reform package.
Its demand puts pressure on the government to explain whether further negotiations remain possible before the first amendment proposals are introduced.
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