Another Consultative Assembly isn’t the answer – Kpebu tells NPP

Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has questioned the New Patriotic Party’s call for a Consultative Assembly to be set up as part of the ongoing constitutional review process.

His comments follow the NPP’s rejection of government’s plans to review the 1992 Constitution.

The Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, at a press conference on Thursday, September 17, 2026, announced the NPP would oppose the changes in Parliament and campaign against them at the referendum, insisting that the scale of the proposed reforms goes beyond what should be handled as routine amendments under Chapter 25 of the Constitution.

Reacting to this on JoyNews’ The Pulse, Kpebu said though he agreed with the spirit of the NPP’s proposal, particularly the call for wider consultation, he wasn’t sure another Consultative Assembly was the right vehicle for it.

“The spirit of their suggestion is that there has not been enough consultation. And consultation would not always take place in a consultative assembly,” he said.

Kpebu said his position on the proposal was still evolving. He noted that Ghana had already used a Consultative Assembly to produce the 1992 Constitution and questioned why the country would return to the same model instead of government engaging the NPP directly to find common ground.

“I think for me now, if the government would engage NPP, serious engagement, negotiate with them, then also maybe we can do an online ballot of what they agree on before we go on the referendum,” he said.

He said some proposed reforms could be settled through direct talks between government and the opposition, while others could simply be flagged as areas of broad agreement.

He named the four-year presidential term and the system for electing Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) as reforms he believes should stay as they are, and called for non-partisan MMDCE elections.

“We should have free and fair elections, non-partisan, so that for instance, if you want to be MCE of the Kokomlemle area, you can just go ahead. You don’t need political party colours,” he said.

Kpebu argued that a more flexible process allowing wider public input would work better than creating another Consultative Assembly, and warned that adding new structures could delay the entire review.

“The more we create bureaucratic structures, go and do Consultative Assembly, etc., then it doesn’t look like we can do the amendment this side. It means that perhaps it will take place after 2028,” he said.