Month: December 2019

Member of Parliament for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu said the withdrawal of the referendum bill would not have happened if the current ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had a huge Majority in the seventh Parliament.

According to the Minority Leader, he did not know the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) was that powerful to cause the withdrawal of the referendum bill.

“They need us to move on, Ghanaians and the media should be grateful they did not give the current government supper Majority in Parliament, we have become relevant because of Article 290 of the 1992 Constitution, if they could walk alone they would have done it, they do not have the numbers”.

And amendment of the constitution is not an ordinary bill that is why it has to go through the Council of State.

“Give Ghanaian citizens the opportunity to decide after all sovereign reside in them, short cutting the process is not a decentralization system of Ghana neither has the President done good to participatory democracy in Ghana”.

Mr. Iddrisu questioned how the President hopes to build consensus when he describes us as hypocrites. “How do you invite us to a table? I think his words not good enough to build the needed consensus, the President was misled, you do not use a television broadcast to annul a constitutional process”

We are a country governed by rule of law, he must walk the legitimate legal process for it to be annulled otherwise one day, we would get a President in a process of a referendum when it is not going well and he feels he is losing would announce that the process should be stopped, he said.

“We should not start setting a bad precedent for this beloved country of ours, let us do the right thing”, he lamented.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has said the withdrawal of the bill meant to decide if political parties should present candidates for district level elections has not breached any provision of the constitution or Standing Orders of Parliament, neither has the process of the withdrawal interfered with the workings of the Electoral Commission as said by his colleagues Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu on the floor of the House on Monday 2nd of December 2019. `

He noted at a press conference just after the Attorney General, Gloria Akufo withdrew the bill leading to the process of the referendum was an assignment directed by the President and added that the process does not amount to interfering with the work of  the Electoral Commission.

“The President has not done such a thing, bills can be introduced in Parliament which can come in the instance of either the President. Parliament as an institution or from a Member of Parliament, as Minister exit to help the President run the country effectively”.

In respect of Article 55 (3) is constitutional amendment it has entrenched provisions, and because of that it is referred to the Council of state for their advice and goes through consideration stage.

For the entrenched provisions when it comes to Parliament nothing is done, the Speaker only announce that the bill has come to the House, it goes to the Council of state and they submit their advice within one month.

And referred to the proper authority for the conduct of a referendum gazette and referred to the EC for the conduct of a referendum. Parliament is then empowered to go on or not if the outcome is NO that means no to Parliament if the outcome is YES then it means Parliament can go ahead with the amendment process of the provision of the constitution.

“The Minister who introduced the bill has the capacity to withdraw the bill at whatever stage, as the AG assigned by the President has done on the floor”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has taken a swipe at President Nana Akufo-Addo for unilaterally announcing the withdrawal of the December 17th 2019 referendum.

According to the Minority Leader, the President has engaged in an unacceptable breach of the very constitution he sworn to uphold.

“Nana Akufo-Addo is not the Electoral Commission of Ghana and is neither cloth with the mandate as an Executive President to interfere with the work of the EC”, he said a press conference on Monday 2nd of December 2019.

He backed his point by referring to Article 46 of the 1992 Constitution, “except as produce in this constitution and any other law not inconsistent with this constitution in the performance of its function EC shall not be subjected to the control of anybody in authority. We in the Minority find the unilateral usurpation of the powers of the EC in withdrawing the referendum question unacceptable”.

The Minority Leader further pointed out that it is reported that the President instructed the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Alima Mahama to abort the process of referendum in Parliament.

“He needs to be reminded that the sponsor of the process is the learned Attorney General and all the bills introduced is under her signature and pen and not the Local Government Minister, where is he getting that from he needs to be advised accordingly”.

Again, in April 2017, he said he engaged all the former Presidents and also the Minority Leadership, “let me remind him that neither him nor any of the former President represent the sovereign or sovereignty of Ghana”.

The sovereignty of Ghana is vested in Article one of the constitution by the following provision, “the sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people of Ghana in whose name an welfare the power of authority is supposed to be exercise in the manner laid down in the constitution”,

Again, he revealed that in the United Kingdom the British Parliament is sovereign but it is not the case in Ghana’s Parliament, sovereign will of the people of Ghana is the question of a referendum.

“People should have a say and input in the referendum, that denial amount to lynching of the rule of law, the President is engaging in constitutional lynching of the rule of law”.

Mr. Haruna Iddrisu emphasised that if President Nana Akufo-Addo had consulted him he would not have come to Parliament with amendment only on Article 243 (1) of the constitution, “that is inadequate, insufficient and not exhaustive enough, we drew the attention of the Majority in the debate”.

In addition, we can have a partisan District Assembly system, we can have a non-partisan Assembly system and have elections conducted within a non-partisan system and further pointed out that the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) has not betrayed the President but rather he contradicted himself with the various Articles he used in introducing the Bill in Parliament.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

An important focus of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament after the presentation of country reports at the plenary has to do with Committee meetings.

This, a member of the Ghanaian delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament, Clement Kofi Humado explained is because the Committee work normally are referrals from either the Commission, specialized agencies like the Court of Justice and other referrals from the Speaker.

“The Speaker usually reads it at the plenary and referrals are made to the respective Committees that would handle it, the committee would meet on the matter and deliberate on it, most of the time in the presence of the institutions that had brought it, recommendation is made in the form of a report and submitted back to the plenary”.

In an interview, he pointed out that Committees do meet to look at the terms of reference before it, and see how it can be accomplished and if it requires a field trip, it would be proposed to the Speaker and sent to the Secretary General who would then approve it and then the field trip would be embarked on, either than that we have the agencies appearing before the various committees; adding that the Committee to handle the Nigerian border closure would have to involve a field trip.

As to whether the Committee meetings do face the issue of language barrier, he responded by saying the committee rooms are equipped with interpretation facilities and it is up to the committee chair to collaborate with the Secretary General or Director of Administration to ensure that interpreters are informed.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com/Abuja