Speaker unhappy with Graphic story
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, has advised the Daily Graphic to retract a story it carried in the Thursday, July 14 edition of the newspaper with the headline "Significant event in Parliament ."
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He said the story suggested that Parliament had bad motives and had made changes to a Constitutional Instrument CI 94 which it had no powers to do.
The story which was published on page 23 of the paper stated, among other things, that: "The most significant event that has occurred in Parliament so far this week is the change in some clauses of the Public Elections Regulations, 2016 which has now been named Constitutional Instrument (CI) 94.
When the CI was first laid on Friday, it did not have any provision on offences related to elections.
At the time it was laid, only the Chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament, Mr O. B Amoah, had a copy and that copy did not have anything related to punishment for election officers.
But lo and behold, when copies of the CI were distributed to members on Monday, a new clause had been inserted.
Article 44 (1) of the CI states: "The provision in relation to election offences specified in the Representation of the People Act, 1992 (PNDC 284) apply to these Regulations.
(2) An election officer who is required to perform a function under these Regulations but fails to perform that function commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than five hundred penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than two years or both and shall for a period of five years from the date of expiration of the term of imprisonment be disqualified from being engaged as an election officer.
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With this clause, anyone who intends to be or already is an electoral officer and thinks he or she would not be held liable for infractions made in the course of his or her work should think again.
The punishment is clearly spelt out.
Speaker 's concern
At a meeting at which the Deputy Minority Leader, Mr Dominic Nitiwul; a Deputy Minority Whip, Mr Ignatius Baffuor Awuah; the Majority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, as well as the Clerk to Parliament, Mr Emmanuel Anyimadu, were present, the Speaker said what happened on Friday, July 8, 2016, was "pre-laying " and not the laying of the CI.
He said pre-laying preceded the laying of every CI after which it is laid.
According to the Speaker, Parliament had no right or power to effect changes to any CI that had been laid and that any corrections could only be done preceding laying.
Therefore, he said, the changes could only have been effected at the pre-laying stage.
Mr Adjaho said it was also wrong to suggest that only Mr O. B Amoah had a copy of the document which was laid last Friday, adding that the leadership had copies as well.
He said he had read the reports of Mr Vinorkor on Parliament and the stories were well written.
However, on this particular occasion, he thought Mr Vinorkor was full of malice.
How the matter came up
The matter came up when Mr Nitiwul, on the floor of the House, suggested that the Daily Graphic had done a publication which "attributed bad motives to Mr O. B Amoah and the Deputy Majority Leader."
He sought to read the portions of the publication but the Speaker stopped him, saying he had ordered that Mr Vinorkor should be summoned to a meeting with the leadership to discuss the matter.
Our reporter's response
According to our reporter, the Public Elections Regulations , 2016 which is CI 94 and the Representation of the People (Parliamentary Constituencies) Instrument, 2016 were laid in Parliament on July 8.
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As captured on the Order Paper, there was nothing to the effect that those two papers were being "pre-laid".
The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, pronounced them "laid".
At the time, Members of Parliament complained that the "document had been laid and yet we did not have copies."
The Deputy Speaker's voice and the back and forth that went on is available to the Daily Graphic.
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Subsequently, Mr Vinorkor said he obtained a copy of the CI and realised that it did not have any clause which spelt out punishment for electoral officers who committed infractions. He duly reported that in the newspaper.
However, on Monday, July 11, when copies of the CI were distributed to members, the reporter obtained a copy and realised that there now existed a clause which spelt out punishment for electoral officers who failed to perform their duties rightly.
He, therefore, sought the views of the Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Subsidiary Legislation, Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, who is also a lawyer, on the matter.
Mr Osei-Ameyaw, among other things, stated that he championed that cause hence the change in the CI.
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In his view, it was wrong not to punish election officers for wrongdoing.
Mr Vinorkor said the issue of pre-laying never came up on the floor of Parliament.
"I am, therefore, surprised that it is being said that what occurred in Parliament on Friday, July 8, 2016 was pre-laying and I am being accused of misreporting," he said.
Also, he said, nowhere in his publications did he ever mention the name of the Deputy Majority Leader.
The allegation, therefore, that he sought to embarrass the Deputy Majority Leader and in fact any other member of Parliament was not true.
"The media house which he represents is one of the most credible in the world. We do not write malicious articles about individuals and institutions and Parliament being a very important institution, there is no way I would seek to embarrass the House in its entirety or any member, "he said.
Quick Read
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, has denied that Parliament made changes to Constitutional Instrument, CI 94, when it was laid before the House on Monday.