News:
May 7, 2014
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Parliament has accused the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho of unilaterally taking decisions on the Constitution Review Commission’s recommendations on entrenched provisions.
At a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, the MPs said the Speaker failed to bring the amendment being proposed by government to the House.
The NPP caucus said Mr. Adjoho, on his own forwarded the document to the Council of State without recourse to Parliament.
MP for Bekwai, Joe Osei-Owusu, who is also Chairman of Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Committee in an interview with Citi FM’s Parliamentary correspondent, Richard Dela Sky said the Speaker’s action “is inappropriate”.
“… Parliament is not in session, the speaker is not a Member of Parliament and so that action that he is purporting to take on behalf of Parliament is inappropriate. The speaker acting alone does not have the constitutional power to initiate any law making process,”
He went on to say that “the Speaker is not a Member of Parliament. To that extent there is no legislative power vested in him, acting alone. Article 290 deals with the legislative process which any partition of the constitution may be amended”.
Mr. Osei-Owusu added that the speaker should have placed the matter before Parliament before it was forwarded to the Council of State.
citifmonline.com