LAST WEDNESDAY the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) placed before Parliament a bill to amend the law on the registration of voters in the country.

The objective was to make it possible for Ghanaians abroad, who have been clamouring for the opportunity to vote to do so in this year?s general elections.

Though all political parties and Ghanaians generally agree that Ghanaians abroad have a constitutional right to help elect those who rule us, the manner of its presentation ? under a certificate of urgency ?which allowed no proper scrutiny of the bill, railroaded into such a united storm of opposition that within 48 hours it had been ?shot down?.

The five minority parties, namely the NDC, the CPP, the PNC, the GCPP, EGLE and the NRP, still not sure of where to find the money to fund the nominations and campaigns in the 30 new constituencies, held a meeting and swore to resist the overseas registration of voters for the December elections which would impose further financial burdens on them.

The government, faced with a possible revolt among its own backbenchers, quickly backed down, and decided to allow the amendment bill to go through the statutory three readings. The implications is that our compatriots abroad cannot vote in this year?s election, since by the time the amendment is passed the registration of voters for the next election would have passed.

Though unfortunate, four more years, compared to the past 47 that they have not voted in any election, is fair enough a price to pay to safeguard the integrity of our elections. For as the Bible points out, it would gain Ghana nothing to let every Tom, Dick and Harry to vote in the next election, only for the very fact of their having so voted to serve as the basis for the sanctity of the same election to be questioned. (What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?)

Given the serious constraints of time and materials facing the Electoral Commission in even meeting its responsibilities to Ghanaians within our national landscape, it beats all understanding why anyone would, at the 11th hour, triple its problems. No wonder all sorts of meanings were read into it.

However, a more urgent point that the Gye Nyame Concord wants to stress is the unity of opposition forces that manifested as a result of that amendment, especially given the fact that it was such a unity of forces that brought the NPP to power in December 2000.

Does the NPP think that if it heedlessly creates conditions that bond the entire opposition against it in the run-up to the elections, it can wean them away from the NDC at the 23rd hour, should the need arise?

Arrogance in office has often been the waterloo of ruling governments. It was for the NDC in 2000 and could be for the NPP in 2004. The NDC thought it would win the 2000 elections hands down at the first round, but it went into a second during which the opposition parties remained faithful to the NPP with whom they had shared anxiety, pain and sorrow in the run-up to that election.

It is likely the NPP is also deceiving itself that it can win hands down at the first round. That is a possibility, but it is not absolute, and a hedging of bets, in the form of not alienating all the opposition parties at the same time, could be a good back-up plan. A word to the wise...