General News of Sunday, 30 October 2016

Source: 3news.com

Parliament wasn’t diligent in passing CI 94 – Minority Leader

Minority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Menssah-Bonsu Minority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Menssah-Bonsu

Minority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has admitted Parliament did not do a diligent work when it passed the Constitutional Instrument 94 (CI94).

Speaking on 3FM’s Late Edition show, the Minority Leader said some errors that were identified and pointed out to the Electoral Commission were not corrected, reasons why the courts are punching holes in the CI 94. “…indeed parliament as a whole ought to have been much more diligent when the final product came. Unfortunately again I am told because of the rush a lot of people didn’t have the document to peruse.”

Sharing her thoughts on the issue, a special guest on the show, Madam Rodalyn Imoro Ayana, suggested it is time Ghanaians took a second look at the qualification of parliamentarians before electing them into office.

“That is why I’m joining the school of thought that, it’s about time that we started looking at the qualification for members of parliament…” She thinks very few MPs do the job in parliament.

“It looks as somehow some of them are overworked because some people do no cut it and so just a few of them are working hard so at any given stage they are working too hard.”

An Accra High Court on Friday identified as a serious problem the lack of definition for what the CI described as nomination period which in the court view was a grave defect. The Supreme Court had a day before identified what it terms drafting problems with the same CI.

This was when it ruled in favour of a private citizen Nana kwesi Nyametiase Eshun who sued the EC and the Attorney General for not providing a portion on the collation sheet where agents of candidates would sign after results have been declared and giving copies of same to the candidates.