General News of Thursday, 5 March 2015

Source: tv3network.com

Appearance of Afari Gyan in Parliament to delay

The appearance of the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, in Parliament will be delayed between five and eight days as a result of the inability of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to honour the Thursday, March 5 summon date.

The Local Government Ministry adduced that it was unable to honour the invitation on the originally scheduled date as a result of the upcoming National Sanitation Day.

The ministry is in the Volta Region for the 5th national clean-up exercise.

Announcing this on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, March 4, Deputy Majority Leader Alfred Kwame Agbesi said the Business Committee could not reach the Electoral Commission and the Ministry of Finance, the two other institutions summoned, over the March 5 date.

Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho, therefore, directed the Committee to arrange the institutions to appear between Tuesday and Thursday next week.

The Electoral Commissioner and the heads of the two ministries are to explain to Parliament the circumstances that led to the cancellation of the district level elections.

The elections were scheduled to be held on Tuesday, March 3 but were indefinitely postponed after the Supreme Court declared the lead-up as unconstitutional.

The EC is expected to lay a new legislation before Parliament on March 16.