Minority battles Adjaho

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.