The Deputy Attorney \u2013General, Dominic Ayine, has expressed his disappointment in the rejection of \u00a0the Constitutional Amendment Bill which was seeking to empower the Electoral Commission (EC) to hold elections on the first Monday of November in election years.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”gfu5xonxmYNtlzeO2gvx0akwy7P75q5O”]Dominic Ayine believes the bill was rejected for political expediency and not necessarily because various stakeholders involved in the deliberation process failed to do their job.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I said, it is for political strategic convenience that the bill has been rejected. It is not because we have not done our work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parliament on Thursday rejected the passage<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>of the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2016.<\/p>\n According to Citi News\u2019<\/strong> Duke Opoku Mensah, \u201cthe Bill could not garner the 184 votes needed\u201d for its passage.<\/p>\n Out of the 275 members of parliament, 125 voted for the November 7 date, whiles 95 voted against it, with 45 being absent from the House.<\/p>\n Announcing the results of Thursday\u2019s secret balloting, the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho, said,\u00a0the results of the secret ballots are as follows, the I\u2019s 125, No\u2019s 95. Honourable members, Article 291 clause 3 requires that Parliament needs at least the votes of two-third of all members of Parliament to approve the Bill at the second reading stage and that two-thirds is 184, because the two thirds of 275 is 183.333. Therefore the constitution amendment Bill 2016 is rejected at the second reading.\u201d<\/p>\n CI for December election date<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking on the development, Ayine said\u00a0there will be a new Constitutional Instrument (CI) for the December date,adding that the \u201cStatus quo ante still prevails.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Marian Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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