The participants which included; chiefs, religious and traditional leaders, media practitioners, political party representatives, legal practitioners, People with disabilities, security personnel, gender advocates stated their intend to go to the Supreme Court to seek legal redress.

The participants made the proclamation at the Electoral Commission (EC) ROPAA Consultative and Implementation Committee Eastern Regional stakeholders and civil society organisations engagement.

The EC ROPAA Committee had so far engaged stakeholders Western, Central Region, and Volta Region.According to the participants, the ROPAA law which seeks to empower eligible Ghanaians abroad to vote in general elections including; Presidential and Parliamentary and national referenda, "is ambiguous and unattainable.

"It is practically unacceptable for the citizens living abroad to participate in national elections, which include; Associations and Unions elections as well as District Assembly Elections.

"Can Ghana afford to hold elections in all the 193 United Nations member states and the other two non-member states the Holy See and the State of Palestine? 

The law mandates that citizens be registered as voters, while resident abroad and being outside the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ghana, and doing so from/at their places of residence abroad or designated centres close to their places of residence abroad or from/at the Ghana Mission/Embassy within their jurisdiction abroad.

The Law mandates that the Voters Identity Cards to enable them to vote in public elections and referenda be issued to them, while resident abroad at the time of such elections.

The EC ROPAA Committee Members is headed by Dr Bossman Eric Asare, EC Deputy Chairman, in-charge of Corporate Services; Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Reverend Dr Ernest Adu Gyamfi of the National Peace Council.

Others are: Professor Ransford Gyampo of the University of Ghana, and Mr Kofi Akpaloo, representing parties with no representation in parliament; Dr Kojo Asante of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana); and Mrs Adwoa Abrefa Asuama, EC Member.

Mr John Boadu, General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was not available for the Consultation.Dr Asare who is the Committee chairman explained that the Act charged the EC with the responsibility to make regulations for the implementation of the ROPAA. "In complying with the obligation imposed by the Act, the Commission set up a sub-committee to make recommendations on how best the ROPAA can be implemented," he said.

He said the committee was therefore consulting on the requirements for registration, authentication of resident permit, and registration centres and polling stations.

Dr. Kumbuor said the committee was only creating guidelines for the smooth implementation of ROPAA and as such there was the need for the general public to trust the effectiveness of the Committee.

He said it was important that no Ghanaian was disenfranchised during national elections.

A High Court in Accra in 2017 ordered the Electoral Commission to implement, within 12 months the ROPAA law, 2006 [Act 699], indicating that the EC had for the last ten years breached the rights of Ghanaians living abroad by failing to give them an opportunity to vote.

Other issues being discussed included; appointment of registration and election officials, mode and frequency of registration, designs of registration forms, challenges at registration, handling registration challenges, petition against decisions of the overseas registration review committees and exhibition of the voters register.