­­­­Afenyo-Markin draws attention to illegality regarding vote transfer

The Member of Parliament for Effutu, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, Thursday drew the attention of Parliament to the unconstitutionality of the transfer of votes by the Electoral Commission (EC).

Contributing to the motion to adopt the report of the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation on the coming into force of Constitutional Instrument ( CI ) 89, Mr Afenyo-Markin said the transfer of votes carried out by the EC during the recently suspended voter registration exercise was illegal.

He explained that according to the law, the EC could only transfer votes within 42 days to an election.

He observed that in spite of the existence of the law, the EC went ahead to transfer the votes of some voters during the recent registration exercise when CI 89 was not in effect and when a date for the district level elections had not been fixed.

He said as far as he knew, the 42-day provision in the law had not been repealed.

Legal action

Mr Afenyo-Markin, who was counsel for Mr Benjamin Eyi Mensah, the fisherman from Winneba who filed a writ at the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the opening and closing of nominations by the EC before the coming into force of CI 85 was unconstitutional, however, did not state whether or not he intended to take legal action against the EC for the breach of the law.

He said the Supreme Court, in its recent pronouncements on the CI 85 matter called for respect of the law by the EC, and wondered why the EC would engage in another illegality a few months after the court had ruled on that matter.

Turning the spotlight on CI 89, the Effutu MP expressed the hope that every candidate would be given the opportunity by the EC to participate in the election.

He urged the commission to limit activities with regard to the elections to working days, adding that Saturday and Sunday, according to the country's laws, are not working days.

CI 89 report

Members voted unanimously to adopt the report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Subsidiary Legislation.

The report, signed by the Chairman of the committee, Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, said CI 89 did not contravene any provision of the 1992 Constitution and the Standing Orders of Parliament.

It, therefore, called on the House to adopt the Constitutional Instrument.