News:
September 26, 2012
Ghana’s Parliament has passed a Constitutional Instrument that will govern the 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.
MPs passed the CI by consensus at Tuesday’s sitting of the House; giving legal backing to the Electoral Commission’s proposed Biometric Verification exercise at the point of voting this December.
With Tuesday being the 21st Parliamentary sitting day since the CI was laid in the House, the Instrument would become law by close of Tuesday in line with Article 11 (7) of the 1992 Constitution.
A member of the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation, Hon. John Tia Akologu, moved the motion for the adoption of Committee’s report and went to read excerpts of the report to MPs at Tuesday’s sitting.
He said: “The Electoral Commission has since 1996 been conducting public elections under the Public elections regulations 1996, CI 15. However, due to the emerging challenges in the country’s electoral system, the EC has embarked on a number of reforms to address the challenges. One of such reforms is the introduction of the biometric registration system through the passage of the Public Elections Registration of Voters, 2012 CI 72 which came into force on Friday, 23rd March 2012.”
“With the introduction of the biometric registration, the EC has expressed its intention to implement a biometric verification of registered voters during public elections, effective December 2012 to further strengthen existing electoral procedures. Consequently, it has become necessary for the EC to make new Regulations to replace the existing CI 15 in order to incorporate the reforms introduced into the electoral system.
“To give legal effect to the new proposals by the EC regarding the changes in the electoral system and in line with Article 51 of the Constitution, the EC on 14th August, 2012 laid before Parliament the Public Elections Regulations, 2012 (CI 75,” he explained.
According to Hon Akologu, the Committee observed that the major reason for the introduction of the CI 78 is to give legal effect to the introduction to the biometric and verification of registered voters and other matters connected with the election process in the country.
“And so having duly discussed the Constitutional Instrument, it is satisfied that the Public Elections Regulations, 2012 CI 75 conforms to the requirements of the Constitution and other existing electoral laws. The Committee therefore recommends to the house to adopt its report and allow the Public Elections Regulations, 2012 CI 75 to come into force in accordance with Article 11 (7) of the constitution.”
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation, Hon Kwame Osei Prempeh, seconded the motion for the adoption of the Committee’s report.
Explaining why the CI 75 did not spark a Parliamentary storm as was the case with the withdrawn CI 73, he said: “In this one, the EC cooperated with the Committee and therefore we were able to come out freely.”
He further stated that “In this one, the EC brought it to the Committee, we sat on it for three days, did all the corrections before it was officially laid in this House and that is why people have not heard so much noise about it because the EC unlike CI 73, 77, 78, the EC cooperated with the Committee fully and that is why we have gotten an incident-free instrument which is going to help us in this election.”
Citifmonline.com