STATEMENT READ BY MINORITY LEADER ALBAN BAGBIN AT PRESS CONFERENCE HELD ON 2ND MARCH 2006 ON SUNSPENSION OF INDEFINITE BOYCOTT

Ladies and gentlemen of the Media: I wish to warmly welcome you to this press conference and to thank you for your presence despite the short notice given.

The Minority after consultations with its coalition partners and upon appeals received from mediating religious and civil society groups, and a broad segment of the public, has decided to suspend its boycott of Parliament and resume work on Thursday 2nd March 2006.

The Minority wishes to thank its partners and all who joined in the struggle against a unilateral and partisan passage of the Representation of the Peoples (Amendment) Bill (ROPAB) which seeks to radically change the electoral landscape of this country without the necessary consensus. The Minority wishes to express appreciation to the TUC and other organized labour groups for the principled stand they took on the issue of ROPAB.

The Minority thanks the press for the medium provided for the exposition of our views and the broad public debate that this provoked among the general population. We believe that by highlighting the various positions on the ROPAB question the media has highly sensitized our people about the challenges this nation must face in the near future.

The Minority also wishes to express appreciation for the wise counsel of the various religious bodies and civil society groups that attempted to play a mediating role in the ROPAB disagreement. The Minority regrets that the President and the Majority instead of heeding the wise counsel of these bodies rather chose to slap them in the face by going ahead with the partisan passage of the bill and a hasty granting of Presidential Assent barely 24 hrs after its passage.

Despite the obvious snub to these organizations by Government, the Minority believes that the opportunity still exists for a mediation that could lead to a review of the offending legislation and a forum for forging a consensus. We reiterate our commitment to continue to cooperate with the mediating religious bodies, civil society groups, organized labour, progressive students groups and all Ghanaians who have the peace and stability of the nation at heart, in forging a consensus on how to maintain the integrity of our electoral system in the coming years.

The Minority still maintains its stand that any decision to radically change the electoral landscape must be done by a consensus of all the political stakeholders. The Minority still believes that a unilateral passage and implementation of ROPAB could result in disputed elections which could lead to conflict. It is our firm conviction that such consensus should have been achieved before any review of the electoral landscape.

Constitutional democracy and good governance guarantee space for free expression including the right to demonstrate. The Minority finds alarming the NPP Government?s growing intolerance for free expression as demonstrated in the brutalization of peaceful demonstrators on the 21st February this year. This unprovoked attack by the police led to severe injury to not less than 30 people. Government must take full responsibility for the violent attack by police officers on the innocent and unarmed demonstrators. The Minority further calls on Government to immediately halt the persecution of the organizers of the anti-ROPAB demonstrations in order to create a conducive atmosphere for dialogue and consensus building in the country.

The Minority is also keenly following developments at the Privileges Committee in the matter of the referral for contempt of Mr. Tony Lithur, counsel for Deputy Minority Leader Doe Adjaho. The very act of the referral and the hostile posturing of the committee chairman are all acts calculated to intimidate and cow the Minority into docility. This is particularly disturbing considering that the case based on which Mr. Tony Lithur wrote to the Speaker had the objective of upholding the constitution and preventing an infraction of the law by Parliament. This is the same Constitution the Rt. Hon. Speaker and all Members of Parliament have sworn an oath to uphold, preserve, protect and defend. We however wish to assure the good people of Ghana without any equivocation that the Minority will never submit to any acts of intimidation, blackmail or political chicanery. We will continue to be guided by the constitution, good conscience and the national interest in the discharge of our duties as representatives of the people.

Ladies and Gentlemen; as we said in our statement announcing our disengagement from the proceedings of Parliament, we wish to reiterate that we will use all legitimate instruments available to us to prevent the NPP from dragging our dear country Ghana down the slippery slopes of instability and confrontation.

Thank You.

ALBAN BAGBIN MINORITY LEADER 2ND MARCH 2006