Haruna Iddrisu
A PETITION of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) opposing the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to lay a new Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) in Parliament to register new voters has been stood down.
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, explained that this was to enable the NDC MPs to do consultation with their Majority counterparts on the matter.
The advertised petition had demanded the House to free the proposed Public Elections (Registration of Voters) C.I., indicating that the legislation should not be laid until “the backlog of Ghana Cards, which the National Identification Authority has admitted to, has been cleared.”
The NDC MPs also argued in the petition that the proposed C.I. by the EC would be a subsidiary legislation and therefore cannot override the substantive provision in the constitution on the citizens’ right to register and vote, noting that the “insistence on the Ghana Card as the only evidence of citizenship will deny millions of citizens the right to register and vote.”
The Minority wants the EC to include other forms of evidence of citizenship such as Ghanaian passport and the guarantor system to be part of the proposed legislation.
It intimated, “Any further action on the proposed C.I., by or in Parliament should be frozen until consultations have been initiated and concluded with the major stakeholders, especially the political parties, including the NDC, and civil society.”
Speaker
Last Friday, the Speaker of Parliament flexed his muscles against EC, cautioning the electoral management body to have the pre-laying meetings with him and the leadership of the House before it can submit any Constitutional Instrument to Parliament for laying.
According to him, until that is done, the EC ought to “forget about laying any such instrument in the House,” adding that officials of the electoral management body have misconstrued the concept of independence of the commission.
Independence Argument
“I think there is misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the concept of independence of various state institutions or arms of government that are stated by the constitution to be independent,” he stressed.
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, had earlier raised the issue and said that the EC intended to lay a new C.I. in Parliament to pave the way for the commission to register only people with ID cards from the National Identification Authority (NIA).
“There is a discrepancy in the numbers between what the EC have registered as voters – up to 17 million and what is on the rolls of the National Identification Authority.
“And we hear that the EC wants to rely on the National Identification Authority data. The primary question the Hon Ahmed is asking is what has happened to the Electoral Commission’s own biometric data that today the EC is avoiding the use of their own data they collected and want to collect biodata from the NIA,” he asserted.
In a response, Speaker Bagbin said, “I will not allow any such instrument to be laid in this House until I am briefed, and I think that is the proper thing to do, together with the House to make sure that the right thing is done in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.”
He continued, “I have not heard anything from the EC and I have not been given any brief by the EC on any proposed instrument coming from them. I raised this sometime ago and I am yet to receive them to be briefed on it.”
He said, “Until that is done, they should forget about laying any such instrument in the House,” and continued, “The independence is in the performance of their functions.”
The Speaker explained, “When a matter comes before Parliament, that is the performance of our function; not their function. And they cannot say they are not subject to the control of anybody, including the institution of Parliament.”
“Because that time, that is our function that we are going to perform and we are not subject to the control of any arm of government or institution of state,” he insisted.
“So please, the EC, the Bank of Ghana, including the judiciary, should take note that their independence doesn’t mean that independence [prevents] Parliament from performing its functions,” he insisted.
“So, if the C.I. is to come to the House, the proper thing must be done; both procedure and substantive laws have to be followed,” the Speaker emphasised.
Mr. Bagbin stated that anybody who is not satisfied with the decision taken by him is permitted to proceed to the Supreme Court.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House