ACCRA, Ghana – Government has accepted a proposal to place a constitutional cap on the size of Ghana’s Parliament, limiting the total number of Members of Parliament to 300.
The announcement was made by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, while presenting the Government’s White Paper on the recommendations of the Constitutional Review Committee on Thursday, July 30.
276 Constituency MPs + 24 Proportional Seats
According to Dr. Ayine, the current constituency-based electoral system will be maintained, with the addition of a proportional representation component to make Parliament more inclusive.
Under the new proposal:
– 276 MPs will continue to be elected directly through constituency elections
– 24 MPs will be allocated through proportional representation
The 24 additional seats will be reserved for historically underrepresented groups including women, persons with disabilities, and young people.[PWDs]
“The government has accepted that the size of Parliament be capped and we propose a ceiling of 300 members. The current membership of Parliament is 276 and so these will be elected directly in constituency elections like we already have, and the remaining 24 will be elected or selected through proportional representation among women, persons with disabilities and the youth,” Dr. Ayine explained.
Cost-Saving and Broader Representation
The Attorney-General said an independent study will be commissioned to determine the structure and implementation of the proportional representation component.
He noted that capping Parliament at 300 will help reduce the cost of running the legislature while creating room for broader representation.
“Capping Parliament saves cost and the reserve element opens the doors of our legislature wider to those that our politics have historically kept outside,” he stated.
The proposed reform forms part of government’s broader measures to strengthen Ghana’s democratic institutions and improve governance.
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