Minority
battles Adjaho
By
Mohammed Awal
The
Minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Parliament has indicted the Speaker,
Edward Korbly Doe Adjaho, of "extreme partisanship" in the parliamentary
decision-making process.
Addressing
a press conference in Accra yesterday to react to the Speaker's purported
referral to the Council of State, the proposals for the amendment of certain
entrenched provisions of the 1992 Constitution, the Minority Spokesperson on
Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Joseph Osei Owusu, said the Speaker's conduct
"unwinds the clock of national interest approach to parliamentary
business."
Mr.
Osei Owusu argued that unilaterally referring the proposals for the amendments
to the Council of State, without first consulting Parliament, by the Rt. Hon.
Speaker of the august House was "illegal." He said the Speaker, not
being a Member of Parliament (MP), has no moral right or legal backing to have
done what he did.
"It
must be stated at the onset that the Speaker is not a Member of Parliament. To
that extent, there is no legislative power vested in him acting alone," he
argued.
He
said Clause (2) of Article 290, which requires the Speaker to refer proposals
for amendment to the Council of State, could not be taken as a stand-alone
provision which clothes the Speaker with administrative authority to initiative
constitutional amendments.
According
to the Minority, when they drew the Speaker’s attention to his unconstitutional
conduct, he also referred them to the same Article 290 of the 1992 Constitution,
where he claimed to have derived his powers from, a position which has been
challenged by the Minority.
Under
the heading Amendment of Entrenched Provisions, clause 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, of the
said Article 290 reads:
(2)
A bill for the amendment of an entrenched provision shall, before Parliament
proceeds to consider it, be referred by the Speaker to the Council of State for
its advice, and the Council of State shall render advice on the bill within
thirty days after receiving it.
(3)
The bill shall be published in the Gazette, but shall not be introduced into
Parliament, until the expiry of six months after the publication in the Gazette
under this clause.
(4)
After the bill has been read the first time in Parliament, it shall not be
proceeded with further, unless it has been submitted to a referendum held
throughout Ghana, and at least forty per cent of persons entitled to vote,
voted at the referendum, and at least seventy-five per cent of the persons who
voted cast their votes in favour of the passing of the bill.
(5)
Where the bill is approved at the referendum, Parliament shall pass it.
(6)
Where a bill for the amendment of an entrenched provision has been passed by
Parliament, in accordance with this, article, the President shall assent to it.
But,
according to the Minority, bills are meant for the consideration of Parliament,
and not the Speaker. "We do not want to believe that the Speaker merely
took a cue from this rather unfortunate guidance from the Attorney-General, and
proceeded forthwith to refer the bill to the Council of State.
Executive
Review of National Constitution
The
Minority rejecting the processes leading to the establishment of the
Constitutional Review Commission, and its subsequent submission of its final
report, said they regretted to observe that the whole process of constitutional
amendment was turning out to be nothing other than "an executive review of
the national constitution."
Mr.
Osei-Owusu accused the Executive of reviewing portions of the final report
presented to it by the Constitutional Review Commission, and replacing them
with its views.
According
to him, the executive appointed a Constitution Review Implementation Committee
to ensure that the amendments proffered by the commission, plus the "views
of the Executive are effected."
Also,
he said, the President's tasking of the Attorney-General and Minister of
Justice to formulate the combined proposals from the Commission and itself
(Government) into bill, and the receipt by the Speaker from the latter
instructions in the form of proposals for amendment to the Constitution of
Ghana, in his capacity as the administrative head of Parliament, without
reference to the MPs in plenary or committee, could not be said to be in tandem
with best practices
"The
afore-stated process is totally at variance with known constitutional and
practiced constitutional review processes worldwide. It is not done anywhere in
the democratic world," he stated.
The
Minority called on the Speaker to withdraw the referral of the bill from the
Council of State, and also the A-G to withdraw the bill from Parliament, and have
it gazetted before its introduction to Parliament for consideration, in order
to create the six-month space for public participation in the deliberation
concerning the bill.
