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 said.
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, to act 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.
He added that “the whole process of constitutional amendment is turning out to be nothing other than an executive review of the national constitution.”
Background
The Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) was created and constituted by the late President John Mills and on January 11, 2010, he inaugurated the Commission to review the 1992 Constitution.
The setting up of the CRC was criticized by some who thought the President was violating the constitution.
Nonetheless, the Commission went on to execute its duties by consulting sections of the general public and later proffered some possible amendments.
The executive arm of government reviewed the report by the CRC and later issued a white paper which rejected portions of the report.
A Constitutional Review Implementation Committee (CRIC) was set up to ensure that the amendments proffered by the CRC and that of the government white paper were effected.
The Attorney General was authorized by the President, John Mahama, to formulate the combined proposals from the CRC and the government white paper into a bill to be sent to Parliament for consideration and possible approval.
Click on link to read the full statement from the Minority
Minority statement on Doe Adjaho
By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana