The Citizens’ Platform on Constitutional Reform (CPCR) has called on the government to introduce and pass a Constitutional Reform Implementation and Roadmap Act to provide a legally binding framework for the implementation of proposed amendments to Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
According to the Platform, the roadmap should clearly define the sequence of reforms, institutions responsible for each stage and timelines for completing the process.
The CPCR made the call at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, to mark the International Day of Democracy and present its civil society position paper on the ongoing constitutional review process.
The Platform, convened by the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana), Democracy Hub and the STAR-Ghana Foundation, brings together more than 100 civil society organisations, labour unions, professional bodies and individual citizens.
It said the scale of the proposed reforms, which affect more than 50 constitutional provisions and more than 20 entrenched clauses, required a process that was transparent, inclusive and protected from partisan control.
Four key guarantees
The CPCR identified four key process guarantees it wants the government to provide.
First, it wants the implementation roadmap to be backed by law, arguing that previous reform efforts had stalled because they were not sufficiently protected by clear rules, timelines and broad national consensus.
The Platform cited the 2012 constitutional reform implementation process and the 2019 referendum on local government reforms as lessons Ghana must learn from.
It said the proposed reforms would involve more than 50 amendments and over 14 bills and could extend beyond the life of a single Parliament or government.
“Constitutional reform is a national undertaking and so its success must not depend on the political calendar,” the Platform said.
Second, it called for the mandate of the Constitution Review Implementation Committee to be clearly defined to allow it to build consensus and recommend changes to the government’s own positions where necessary.
The CPCR also called for bills that may be moving ahead of the committee’s consultations, including the Conduct of Public Officers Bill, to be paused.
It warned that restricting the committee to merely converting the government’s position into legislation could make the reform process appear partisan.
Referendum must offer meaningful choice
On the proposed referendum, the Platform urged the government not to bundle more than 20 unrelated amendments into a single “Yes” or “No” question.
It argued that the proposed changes cover different subjects and that voters should be allowed to express different positions on different issues.
The CPCR said amendments should instead be grouped according to subject matter and presented in a manageable number of clearly worded questions.
It also called for referendum questions to be written in plain language to enable voters to understand precisely what each vote would change.
Funding for civic education
The Platform further demanded ring-fenced funding for civic education ahead of any referendum.
It proposed that funding be protected by law, led by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), and released sufficiently early to allow citizens to properly understand the proposed amendments.
The CPCR noted that the constitutional thresholds for an entrenched-clause referendum were high, requiring at least 40 percent of registered voters to participate and 75 percent of those voting to approve the proposals.
It, therefore, argued that civic education could not be left until the final weeks of the process.
The civil society coalition said it welcomed several proposals contained in the government’s position paper.
Among them are the creation of an independent Political Parties Regulatory Commission, expanded participation of party members in the selection of candidates and executives, regulation of campaign expenditure and financial disclosure, and measures to curb abuse of incumbency.
It also supported moving presidential elections to the first week of November to extend the transition period, while retaining the requirement that presidential and parliamentary elections be held on the same day.
Other areas of support include stronger safeguards on the use of certificates of urgency, proportional representation in Parliament, allowing dual citizens by birth to serve in Parliament, and giving ordinary MPs greater powers to introduce bills.
The Platform also backed binding parliamentary votes of censure, restrictions on the powers of an outgoing government between election and the swearing-in of a new president, and separating the Attorney-General’s office from Cabinet.
It further supported reducing the period for filing a presidential election petition to 14 days and requiring the Supreme Court to determine such a petition within 30 days.
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