Julia Schweers Diaspora Engagement Policy aims to reform is a clause from the 2000 Citizenship Act which forbids dual citizens from holding certain political offices: ‘Furthermore, there are other Ghanaians in the diaspora who, by virtue of their dual citizenship or nationality, are ineligible for appointment into certain political offices, including ministerial appointments in spite of the diverse contributions they make to the country’s development. In order to sustain the contributions of these categories of people, there is the need to adopt measures to ensure their political participation and rights through their effective integration into the political economy of the country.’ (Government of Ghana 2020: 16) Although Osei Narko, the author of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, is a member of the current ruling party, NPP, and although his bill is in line with his party’s stances on dual citizenship, it seems nevertheless unlikely that the bill will make it to a second reading during the current legislative period. After all, Osei Narko did not succeed in uniting his party behind the bill and presented it as an individual member, without the backing of his parliamentary fraction. This lack of support from his own party may have been a result of the untimely moment that Osei Narko chose from a party perspective. While the NPP made clear in its Diaspora Engagement Policy that it aims for reforms to allow MPs to hold dual citizenship, the NPP did not seem willing to push for such a bill while Quayson, an opposition candidate, was accused of breaching the ban on dual citizenship. 4.3 The 2024 Presidential Elections: Campaigns for Dual Citizenship and Controversies Around Voter Registration The Supreme Court's ruling in the Nimfah v Quayson case in 2023 did not change Quayson's position, as his election had been confirmed in a by-election held in 2021 (after his citizenship status had become public and after he had officially renounced his Canadian citizenship). However, the Supreme Court’s ruling coincided with the election campaign period for the general elections to be held in December 2024. Two days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the presidential candidate of the oppositional NDC, John Mahama, visited Quayson’s constituency. During his visit, he announced that, if elected, he would remove those restrictions that prevent dual citizens from running for public office. In his speech, he declared the Supreme Court’s ruling an ‘injustice and an affront to Ghana’s democracy’ and proposed that amending the laws on dual citizenship had the potential to reverse the ‘brain drain’ as more diasporans would feel compelled to return to Ghana: ‘A country's human resource is its best resource, and we happen to have about three million of our citizens abroad, they have acquired experience, they have acquired different talents. And why should we have a law that says that if you going to be an MP in Ghana, you must give up your dual citizenship’ (as cited by: GraphicOnline (2023) see also: Darfah Frimpong (2023)). Just one month later, the current vice president, Mahamudu Bawumia, a member of the ruling NPP, was accused of secretly holding dual Ghanaian-British citizenship, an allegation he has so far refuted as a baseless accusation (Zurek 2023). It seems that both parties are, in principle, willing to reform the citizenship bill so that public officials can have dual citizenship but deem it advantageous to use the clause as it is now to disqualify political opponents during election campaigns. In principle, extending the political rights of dual citizens has bipartisan support. The next legislative period will show whether both parties will be willing to work together on this issue. Irrespective of how the 16 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies - EUI