The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has rejected the government’s approach to reviewing Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and called for a Constituent or Consultative Assembly before proposed changes proceed to Parliament and a referendum.

NPP Policy Committee Chairman and Ofoase-Ayirebi MP, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, announced the party’s position at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, September 17, 2026.

The party argues that the scale of the proposed reforms goes beyond routine constitutional amendments. According to the NPP, the Constitution Review Committee recommended changes to 147 of the Constitution’s 299 Articles, alongside 59 new provisions, bringing the total number of proposals to 206.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the breadth of the proposals amounts to a fundamental overhaul of Ghana’s constitutional framework and should therefore involve a broader deliberative process involving political parties, organised labour, professional bodies, traditional authorities, religious groups, civil society and other stakeholders. “The New Patriotic Party therefore rejects this approach being pursued by the NDC government in essentially rewriting the 1992 Constitution,” he said.

The NPP also raised concerns about differences between the government’s position and the recommendations of the Constitution Review Committee. The party said the government has accepted 22 recommendations in full and 25 with modifications, while differing with the committee on the remaining 100 of the 147 proposed amendments.

Oppong Nkrumah said the NPP wants the government to introduce a Constituent or Consultative Assembly Bill in Parliament to establish a formal platform for stakeholders to deliberate on the proposals and build consensus before a referendum.

The party cited Ghana’s constitutional processes in 1969, 1979 and 1992, arguing that expert work was followed by deliberation through representative bodies before the respective constitutional arrangements received legal force.

The NPP maintained that it supports amendments to parts of the 1992 Constitution but opposes what it considers an attempt to undertake a wholesale constitutional overhaul without a comparable broad-based deliberative mechanism.

The party further said it would not support the government’s preferred amendments in Parliament or at a referendum unless a Constituent Assembly or comparable mechanism for negotiated consensus is established.

The call has already attracted a response from the Constitution Review Implementation Committee. Its member and former secretary to the review committee, Dr Rainer Akumperigya, said a Constituent Assembly established through an Act of Parliament was not the only possible route to achieving legitimacy, and suggested a broader national constitutional dialogue instead.