Jean Mensa
The opposition National Democracy Congress (NDC) is demanding the Electoral Commission (EC) to be summoned to Parliament to brief the House about its preparedness for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Minority Haruna Iddrisu said it is important for the country to know the roadmap for the December 7 elections in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, indicating that the 1992 Constitution requires that the presidential and parliamentary elections be held this year.
Mr. Iddrisu, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South Constituency, was responding to the explanatory memorandum on the Business Statement of Parliament yesterday.
NDC Plots
Interestingly, the same members of the NDC who are demanding that the EC comes to Parliament to brief the House about their work have been going about trying to frustrate the work of the commission simply because the EC is planning to compile a new voters’ register for the December election.
One of their MPs, Sam Goerge, last week secured an injunction without recourse to the commission to stop the electoral body from holding its mandatory meeting in the Ningo-Prampram Constituency on the suspicion that they were going to discuss the new voters’ register.
He even organised hoodlums to confront the EC officials when he got to know that the meeting venue had changed to Accra and the police had to step in the stop the NDC group.
Minority Game
Haruna Iddrisu, speaking in Parliament, noted that the independent electoral management body, which was created under Article 45 of the Constitution, owes it a duty to inform Parliament and the entire country about its preparedness for the elections even as the nation struggles to contain the spread of the virus.
“They need to be summoned to give us their roadmap as to their preparedness. They have to apprise this House on their level of readiness for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary election. If we cannot get them to brief the committee on the whole, they have to come to the Special Budget Committee,” the Minority Leader demanded.
Majority View
His counterpart from the Majority side, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, in a response, indicated that there is no shred of doubt that the country would not hold general elections this year, intimating that President Akufo-Addo had given strong indication that he does not intend to stay beyond his constitutional mandate.
According to him, the President is aware that the Constitution does not make any provision for extension of his mandate, unlike Parliament, and would do anything within his powers to ensure the conduct of elections as required by the 1992 Constitution.
He assured the NDC MPs that the EC would take the appropriate steps to brief Parliament and the nation of its preparedness for the polls on December 7.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House